Much Ado About Nothing
by sunflowerb
Summary: Now AU. Complete: Roxas and Namine's time in between KH1 and 2, written prior to 358/2 Days. Two nobodies daring to do one thing they were always told they couldn't: feel. A story of those who dared to make something out of nothing. Namixas
1. Prologue

**To be understood before you read:** I began and finished this story back when all we really knew about 358/2 Days was the title and that it centered on Roxas and maybe that there was a 14th member, so none of that was included in this story. **Now that Days is out, I am NOT going to revise or rewrite this fic to make it fit the events of that game.** I can't. The whole story falls apart if I do. SO, **think of it as kind of an alternate 358/2 Days**. This story takes place in between Roxas's joining the Organization and his being captured by DiZ. There is some time-skipping. I'm not going to go into the events of CoM. Note that at the time I wrote this story it was before the release of Re:CoM in America and I had never been able to finish even Sora's story in the original GBA version, so there could be a few inaccuracies there. Also note that this story **focuses on the relationship between Roxas and Namine.** I'm not so much interested in Roxas's role in the Organization, but I am going to go into Namine's time with Riku and DiZ. The **first half is Roxas-centric.** The **second half focuses more on Namine.**

**Assumptions that make this story work: **The Organization was living at the World that Never Was before half of them moved to Castle Oblivion. Roxas and Namine met before KH2. In the cutscene in KH2 where Roxas first encounters Namine, her words "I wanted to meet you..."; meet is being used losely.

_**Much Ado About N o t h i n g**_

_I'm nobody_

_But neither are you_

"…and just stay out of Larxene's way. She's got a seriously short temper, like, think in terms of the diameter of an atom. And, well, that's pretty much all you need to know to survive in the Organization. Or at least all I can tell you. The rest you'll have to figure out for yourself." Axel finished and flashed Roxas a friendly smile.

(A/N:1)

Since his recent induction into the Organization, Roxas had practically clung to Axel. The pyromaniac had hospitably taken the newest member under his wing, and the two had quickly developed a strong friendship.

Today's lesson consisted of where everything is, who to talk to, who not to talk to, who would bite your head off if you talked to, and who to avoid if you had ever entertained the idea of one day having the necessary assets to reproduce (coughLarxenecough).

It was all Roxas could do to remember all of this information. They rounded a corner, and Roxas, lost amid his attempts to mentally categorize all his co-workers, failed to notice he was about to walk head first into a small blond in a white sundress.

"Roxas!" Axel's warning shook Roxas from his thoughts a moment to late. He unceremoniously collided with the girl.

"Oh!" She squeaked and dropped the notebook she'd been holding. "My sketchbook!" She dropped to her knees and began picking up the stray sketches that had fallen out of her book. Roxas too dropped to his knees to assist her, but she snatched her papers up before his hand could reach them. He managed to beat her to one, and held it out to her.

"Here," the girl looked up at the sketch, and hesitantly took it from him and returned it to her sketchbook; never once looking up at him.

"Thank you," she said, as they both stood up. She kept her blue eyes downcast, and her gaze stayed concentrated on her feet.

"I'm sorry for running into you," she murmured, in a sweet, soft voice barely more than a whisper.

Roxas blinked. Who was this girl? And why did she seem so familiar?

"Don't be. It was my fault." Roxas replied kindly, smiling softly at the small blonde. She looked about his age, now that he thought about it.

The girl glanced up at him, hesitantly, like she was frightened of him. Even as she looked at him, she had the expression of a deer caught in the head lights of a tractor-trailer.

Axel coughed. The girl looked nervously in his direction, before casting her eyes downwards again.

She apologized hastily again before rushing off. Roxas noticed another drawing on the floor, and picked it up.

"Hey, wait, you forgot your-!" But the girl was already gone. Roxas looked down at the sketch. It was a beautiful architectural drawing of the Castle That Never Was. Roxas marveled at the intricate detail and astounding accuracy. Resolving to return the drawing to her later, Roxas stored the sketch in a pocket of his robe.

He then turned to Axel. "Who was she?"

Axel didn't seem the slightest perturbed by the mysterious girl's appearance.

"Oh, you mean Naminé? Yeah, she lives here. She's not exactly part of the Organization, but she does something for us. Not sure what. Xemnas can tell you more about her."

"About whom?" That man had seriously scary timing. A portal opened in the middle of the hallway and the Superior stepped out. Roxas could only surmise that he wanted them for something of major importance to seek them himself.

"Naminé," Axel told him casually. "I was just informing Number XII about our…whatever you'd call her."

"Ah." Xemnas turned to the young nobody. "Naminé is a witch. She is not among our ranks, but neither is she our enemy. She may roam the castle and this world as she pleases, but is not permitted to leave this world without accompaniment and a suitable excuse for leaving. She knows her privileges and restrictions, and, for the most part, she abides by them. It is important that she be looked after, and any suspicious activity on her part is to be reported."

Roxas tried to dig past the big words to uncover Xemnas's meaning.

"So, she's like, our hostage?" Xemnas pondered this definition.

"Naminé is not so much a hostage as a guest in whose favor the status quo is not tipped. As such, amiability with her is not encouraged, but she is to be treated civilly nonetheless. She possesses abilities that are of great value to us, and she will not aid us as we require of her under any other terms. She has the ability to utilize the Corridors of Darkness, and can leave if she so desired. But as long as she has a reason to remain here, she will do so. That being said, I have a vitally important mission for you…"

Roxas tuned his superior out. Axel would fill him in later. Roxas instead opted to contemplate the girl.

Naminé. That was her name. Immediately Roxas felt stupid. Naminé, of course! It seemed so obvious, that was Naminé! How could he forget?

But then Roxas was confronted with an even more confounding conundrum.

How could he remember?

Roxas was certain he'd never met Naminé before in his life. (Never mind that he couldn't remember most of it.) But he felt certain that he knew her; knew her quite well, in fact.

Her face appeared clearly in his mind's eye. Pale white, porcelain skin, soft features, and stunningly brilliant blue eyes. Her eyes- why could he picture them so much more clearly than the rest of her face?

He'd hardly looked at her for two seconds, and yet her eyes appeared so easily in his mind; it was as if he'd stared into them for years.

It made no sense. He'd said scarcely three words to her, and yet he felt like he'd known her forever. Perhaps he'd known her before he lost his heart; after all, he couldn't remember any of that time; but then again, shouldn't she have recognized him too?

He had to find out who this girl was. Who was this artist with such a hold on his mind?

It was then Roxas decided; he had to see her again.

…:RN:…

It had been a few weeks since Roxas had last seen Naminé. He'd been sent on mission after mission, and had yet to find the time to find her again. He had not forgotten his resolution to see her; he had determined that returning her drawing was the perfect excuse for seeing her. His ponderings on the girl had kept him awake many a night.

He finally got a day off, and was determined to use it to find Naminé. He'd started at the one reliable source he knew- Axel.

"So, where is Naminé's room? I assume she's not in the dungeon, since she's our, status quo-impaired guest, or whatever Xemnas called her."

The redhead scrutinized his young friend.

"Why do you want to find Naminé?"

Roxas had already formed his excuse.

"She left behind one of her sketches, that day I first saw her. I just thought she might want it back."

Axel raised an eyebrow. Clearly he was still suspicious of Roxas's motives. "Okay."

…:RN:…

Roxas nervously stood outside Naminé's door. Why, why was he so nervous?

His curiosity finally getting the better of him, Roxas put his fist to the door.

"Come in."

Roxas nervously (again, why with the nervousness?) opened the door to her room.

It was as stark white as the rest of the castle. He almost didn't see Naminé, she blended so well with the rest of the room. It was only by the brilliance of her blue eyes that he managed to locate her at all. She was seated at a white table, a sketchbook and some crayons strewn across it.

Roxas stepped in and closed the door behind him. "So, um, hi." He said.

Naminé watched him warily. "Hi," she said slowly; questioningly.

Roxas examined her. He hadn't gotten a very good look at her before. She had to be about his age, maybe even younger. Her hair was the palest shade of blonde he'd ever seen-it was almost like champagne. Everything about her was pale. Her hair, which rested so picturesquely on her shoulder; her skin so light it was barely discernable from her simple white sundress; Roxas would have thought she was albino if not for her eyes.

Her eyes were simply stunning. Roxas decided they seemed to hold all the mystery and fervor and simultaneous calm of the ocean. One phrase came to mind as he stared into her eyes.

_The calm before the storm._

It was then, as he stared into her eyes, that Roxas realized that this small child was capable of more destruction than met the eye. He felt like that was another thing he should know about her; there was power locked away inside of this small package; he felt certain of it.

She stood, and Roxas had the opportunity to examine the rest of her. She was small in every aspect: in height, in width, in apparent physical strength. She looked fragile, like a doll. Nothing more than a life-sized China doll.

"Excuse me," a voice as light and tinkling as a music-box melody brought Roxas back to the reality where he'd not yet announced the point and purpose of his arrival. "Can I help you? Am I needed for something?"

"Um," Roxas blinked a few times, and then reached into his pocket and pulled out the drawing. "Here, this is yours." He handed the sketch out, and Naminé took it from him and examined it. "You left it, that day we first met, or well, we didn't exactly meet, I just kinda, ran into you, literally, and, um, I thought you might want it back. I mean, I would have brought it back sooner, but I've been busy, you know, missions, and everything. Not that, you know, you're low on my priorities, or anything, it's just, I haven't been able to..." Naminé put a slender finger to his lips, silencing him. Her pale pink lips (so pale blush-pink) lifted into a small smile.

(A/N:2)

"Thank you." She said, and turned away to put her drawing back into her sketchbook.

"It's really good." Roxas said, as Naminé returned her sketch to its place.

"Hm?"

"Your drawing. It's really good." Naminé looked up and him, and smiled again.

"Thank you." How could two words sound so beautiful? Everyday words, yet, she made them sound so poetic.

It was then Roxas realized he thought she was beautiful.

"I've been watching you." She said simply, sitting down at the end of the long white table. Roxas, confused, took a seat at the opposite end of the table. "Not in a creepy, stalker-like way." Naminé opened her sketchbook and began drawing as she spoke, glancing up at him every few seconds. "I just make a point to know who my captors are; what they're capable of, how likely they are to hit me if I upset them."

She pursed her lips and glanced up at Roxas. She did a double take. "Can you tilt your head to the side a little bit-no, the other side. Thank you."

Roxas continued the listen to her, entranced.

"You aren't like the others. You aren't cruel. You don't like killing. Heartless, nobodies; they don't bother you so much; but innocent people, you don't like harming. I've heard you argue with Axel about it. And you wield the keyblade. That says something about the kind of person you are. You're gentle; you're kind. I can tell. I have a way of knowing what kind of a person someone is without ever speaking a word to them. And I think you're a good person. Begs to question what you're doing in the Organization."

"How'd _you_ end up with the Organization?"

"Touché. In layman's terms, I'm a hostage. Though I'm treated much better than a normal hostage would be. I'm here because they need me...and because I have no where else to go. I have no desire to join the Organization, but perhaps if I can help them, I might get a heart out of the deal. And, like I said, it isn't like I have much of anywhere else to go. It would seem that you are here for much the same reasons."

"Yeah." Roxas was appalled. He'd talked to her for ten minutes, and already she could read him like a book.

Naminé simply smiled and went back to her drawing.

Roxas decided now was the time to address the other reason he'd sought her out.

"Hey, have we met before?"

Naminé looked up, her smile fading.

"You've got to do better than that." She replied, harshly. "That's one of the oldest pick-up lines in the book."

Roxas shook his head. "No! I mean, really. Have we met before? Do I know you from somewhere? If I do, and you're mad because I didn't like, glomp you the last time I saw you; I wasn't trying to be mean, I just don't remember you. Not that you mean so little to me that I could forget about you, I just don't remember anything. My memory's a total blank before I lost my heart-I don't even know how I lost it."

Naminé looked up from her sketch and stared at him. "You neither?" She said, stunned.

"_You _neither?" Roxas replied, staring back.

Naminé shook her head. "Nothing."

"I don't remember a thing," Roxas mumbled, his voice almost a whisper, but still echoing around the small room. "But, you seem so familiar, like,"

"Like I should know everything about you." Naminé whispered, her eyes wide.

Roxas smiled in amazement at her. "Yeah."

Naminé smiled. "I'm Naminé."

Roxas smiled back, realizing he'd yet to introduce himself.

"I'm Roxas."

…:RN:…

A/N:1- In the 358/2 Days preview shown at Tokyo Game Show, apparently Axel gives some scientific explanation for the colors of the sunset. It seems to me that he's kinda scientific. Hence the atom comment.

A/N:2-He's _so _Sora's nobody...

The plot starts coming into play next chapter. Now, I feel I should explain the title and inspiration for this fic. Flipping through the information catalouge for Savannah College of Art and Design, where I'm thinking of going, in the Illustration section is a beautiful digital painting of a girl in a wedding dress against a background of laughing masks. It is titled 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Looking at the painting, the first thing I noticed was that the girl bore a striking resemblance to Namine. I've never read Shakespere's Much Ado About Nothing, but I will assume that the illustration probably had more to do with that than Kingdom Hearts. But still. The title is fitting of Namine. She's a nobody; essentially she and Roxas are nothing, yet the two of them manage to cause quite a lot of chaos for the good guys and bad guys alike despite not technically existing. Hence the title. A whole lot of hooblah about nobody. Get it? Also, the illustration seemed so perfect for Namine since the idea of her ever being in a wedding dress would probably send the rest of the Organization into a fit of hysterical (albeit cruel) laughter. (Masks in the background...) Remember this information. It will be important later in the plot...

Sorry for the lengthy author's notes. But if you don't understand the story's set up you will get majorly confused later. Happy V-Day! The next chapter will be up soon!


	2. Identity

**A/N: Yay. Update.** **Getting into the actual story a bit. This chapter is short, but the next chapter is super long, so it balances out. Yah. I'll post chapter 2 really soon since this one is so short.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Chapter 1: Identity_

Roxas was getting good at making excuses.

Ever since his first full conversation with Naminé, Roxas used every excuse he could find to go see her. They would talk about anything and everything; from theories about why they couldn't remember their pasts, to things as simple as the weather (or lack of it); to topics as random as how Styrofoam is made.

Naminé was always drawing during their meetings.

Naminé was always drawing period. Sometimes she would draw Roxas; sometimes she would draw other Organization members. But inevitably, she was always drawing. Occasionally, if Roxas bothered her enough, she would show him her drawings.

"Why is it you sometimes just sort of, scribble? You have the talent to draw all this amazing, realistic stuff, but most of the time you just scribble." Roxas asked her one day.

Naminé smiled, as she always did when he complemented her talent. (Naminé was too pale to noticeably blush.)

"Sometimes I prefer a more, impressionistic approach." Roxas hadn't the slightest clue what 'impressionistic' meant, so he was relieved when she elaborated.

"Sometimes I just want to get the emotion, or the feel of what's happening. So I focus on things like color and texture rather than actual realistic shapes." Luckily Roxas had been hanging out with her long enough to understand what she meant by all this.

"Here's a question for you," Naminé continued, as usual, not looking up from her sketches. "Has it ever struck you as odd that the guy who you are working for to get are heart, is the same one who is responsible for the creation of the heartless who caused you to lose our hearts in the first place?" Roxas was struck dumb at this question. Naminé was looking at him now. Roxas hadn't the slightest clue how to respond. How does one respond to a query like that?

Roxas blinked a few times in response.

Naminé smirked. "I'll take that as a no." She went back to her drawing, leaving Roxas dumbfounded. Frankly, no, Roxas had never thought about Xemnas's role in their having lost their hearts. Once he thought about it, it did seem rather odd that the man who got them all into this mess to begin with, was the same man he was trusting to get him out of it.

"And yet you're here too." Naminé didn't even stop drawing.

"I told you, I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Neither do I."

From that point on, he and Naminé had an unspoken agreement that they would avoid such topics as why each were with the Organization, and what each one did for the Organization. He had his reasons, and she had hers; they decided it was best left at that.

"I've been having these weird dreams lately." Roxas told her one day.

"What sort of dreams?" Naminé asked him. For once, she wasn't drawing. The two were sitting on top of her white table, yes, _on top _of the table. They'd decided to be rebels and sit on top of her table while they ate some Sea-Salt ice cream Roxas had picked up in Twilight Town.

"They're kind of memories, I guess. I think they're from Sora. My somebody, you know. It's like I'm seeing bits and pieces of his life."

Naminé perked up a bit. "It worked?"

Roxas furrowed his brow. "What worked?"

Naminé sighed. "The reason the Organization needs me is because I have the ability to manipulate memories. But only those of certain people. I thought maybe I could restore some of yours. I guess maybe it worked."

Roxas was confused. "Why only certain people?"

Naminé shrugged. "I don't know. But for whatever reason, it seems the Organization is awfully interested in it."

"So is that why you're here?"

Naminé shrugged again. "I suppose so. But anyway, enough about me. Tell me about your dreams."

She seemed eager to change the subject, and since they were beginning to breach their unspoken agreement, Roxas continued with his original train of thought.

"Well, they're all of this boy about my age. He's got blue eyes and a mess of brown hair; spikes going in all different directions."

"Like yours?"

Roxas frowned playfully. "Hey, I have a uniformity to my mess. His hair just goes all over the place."

Naminé giggled, and playfully pulled one of Roxas's blonde spikes. "Sure you do."

Roxas swatted her hand away. "Anyway, he looks like me, so I figure he must be Sora. And then there was this other guy, Riku, or something like that. Cocky, self-centered jerk if you ask me. I can't tell if he and Sora were friends or enemies. They were always fighting over everything, though. Or at least in every memory I have of them-which isn't really saying much, I guess."

Roxas's expression changed from one of curious amusement to one of more serious contemplation.

"Then there was this girl. I don't know her name, but she was important, whoever she was."

"Oh." Naminé's response was soft, hesitant. She didn't seem pleased by this comment.

"Yeah. She was really important to him, me, whatever. She was really pretty too; she had short red hair; well, it wasn't red, exactly. It was kind of auburn, but with a purplish tint to it. Kind of like cranberry, or red wine. And she had such pretty eyes. Blue, like the ocean. And she was really pale for someone who lived on a tropical island."

Naminé had an almost dead look in her eyes as she stared at the opposite wall. She'd stopped eating her ice cream, and it was melting onto her hand, but she didn't seem to notice.

"She meant a lot to Sora, though: I think he really cared about her, whoever she was."

"Oh." Naminé's voice was barely above a whisper.

Roxas began to worry as he tried to look her in the eye. She avoided eye contact at all costs, and Roxas couldn't help but wonder what he'd said.

"Hey Naminé, you okay?" He asked gently.

Naminé didn't look at him. She hopped off the table and tossed her melted ice cream into the trash.

"Yeah." Again, as quiet as a whisper. "I have a lot to do, Roxas; I'll have to talk more later." She picked up her sketchbook and began drawing fiercely; her hand flying across the page in angry strokes.

Roxas watched her, not sure what to do. Was it something he said? Unsure of how to respond, Roxas simply got up and left. Glancing back at her once before he closed the door.

There had been tears rimming her blue eyes. Roxas paused outside her door. What had he said? She'd been fine until he'd mentioned that redheaded girl from his dreams…could that have been it?

Roxas hardly concentrated as he made his way back to his room. Had his mentioning Sora's possible affection for the redhead set Naminé off? She didn't know Sora; she only knew him, but-

Suddenly it clicked.

He had talked about the girl as if _he _cared about her. Like Sora's feelings for her had carried over to him. He'd gone on about the redhead's beauty. Naminé thought he liked this girl.

Naminé was _jealous_.

...That meant she liked him.

Roxas wasn't sure how he felt about that. Could she technically even like him if she didn't have a heart to like him with? Roxas felt strangely happy at the thought of Naminé liking him. Was it because he returned the sentiment? He wasn't sure. Naminé was a very good friend, no matter what. A best friend, even. Axel was his best friend, and yet Naminé meant more to him than Axel. She was like more than a best friend. Did that mean he liked her?

Too many hard questions for one day. Roxas decided he'd think more on the matter later. He had to come up with a way to make it up to Naminé.

As he continued to his room, the stark white walls suddenly pricked a memory in the back of Roxas's mind.

_Flashback_

"Please, _show me what you're drawing." Roxas whined, as Naminé sketched. She was spending a lot of time on this one._

"_Fine." She hesitantly held the drawing up. "Just don't laugh."_

_Roxas didn't see why he'd want to. It was a beautiful self portrait of Naminé in a beautiful and intricately detailed wedding dress._

"_Wow." No other words could describe the drawing. Naminé smiled. "Why a wedding dress?"_

_Naminé's smile faded and she blushed (enough that the blush was actually visible)._

"_I know I'll never get to wear one otherwise."_

_Roxas frowned. "How come?"_

"_I'm a nobody. Who'd marry me?" Naminé replied, starring wistfully into space._

_Roxas felt his non-existent heart go out to her._

"_I would. You're already my best friend, and I'd like to stay in contact with you for the rest of my non-life anyway, so if you can't find some lucky guy to marry you, I'd be happy to marry you; if for no other reason than to give you an excuse to wear a wedding dress."_

_He'd never seen Naminé smile wider._

_End Flashback_

At the time Roxas hadn't been sure what else to say to make Naminé feel better about the improbability of her ever wearing a wedding dress. But now the conversation struck a new idea in his mind.

Roxas smiled, and, as eager as he was, he walked slowly down the hall. His half-baked scheme needed a little more time in the oven. Nevertheless, Roxas had the perfect idea to make it up to Naminé.

* * *

Hm, what will Roxas do? I'm so excited about the next chapter. It's called: Demyx's Girlfriend, Who Lives in Cananda.


	3. Demyx's girlfriend, who lives in Canada

**I'm so freakin busy that I wouldn't have been able to update it I hadn't written this like, two months ago.**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, when freshmen learn that they don't have to be in class 10 minutes early...**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Chapter 3: Demyx's girlfriend, who lives in Canada_

Naminé rolled over in her sleep and buried her head deeper into the pillow.

All was still. Roxas breathed a sigh of relief, and relaxed from the state of being practically glued to her wall. She couldn't find him. Not now. This was perhaps the most important part of his elaborate scheme. He silently edged closer to her closet door.

He tried turning the handle slowly, but found it to be locked. Roxas began to panic. How was he supposed to complete even Phase one of his plan with the-

"I am _such_ an idiot," Roxas whispered to himself. The keyblade appeared at his side in a flash of light. Naminé shifted, and Roxas silently dropped to the ground. Naminé groaned and then was silent. Roxas quietly got back up and used the keyblade to unlock the closet door.

He smiled and slowly turned the handle. He cringed as the door hinge squeaked. Luckily, Naminé did not stir.

Roxas got what he needed and quietly shut the closet door; this time the hinges did not squeak.(A/N:1) Roxas was all ready to leave and celebrate his completion of phase one, when he turned and tripped over something of the floor. He landed loudly on the floor beside Naminé's bed.

"Wha?" Naminé sat up, and sleepily looked around her room. Roxas glanced up, and to his fortune realized that Naminé was not fully awake.

He jumped up and gently put his hands on the half-asleep Naminé's shoulders to calm her down.

"Ze sea turtle wants s'is munny. He's here for 'is s'munny…gunna turn me into banana…" she muttered incomprehensibly. (AN 2)

Roxas did the first thing he could think of. He started singing. He had no time to think of a lullaby, so he sang the first thing that came to mind- some song from a movie Demyx had been watching.

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high…"

Naminé was slowly slipping out of consciousness. Roxas continued singing as he laid Naminé back down on her bed.

"Birds fly over the rainbow

Why, oh why

Can't I?" (AN:3)

Naminé was out. She smiled as she settled into her pillows, and Roxas breathed a sigh of relief. He watched her sleep for a few minutes; she looked so peaceful when she slept.

Roxas shook his head to remind himself of the importance of his mission-the main thing was _not _to get caught.

He looked once more at Naminé, before portaling out of her room.

XIII

"…but more and more of the dreams are about that girl. Kai…something or other. And I don't know why." Roxas paused his rambling to take another bite of his sea-salt ice-cream. He and Axel were resting on the top of the Twilight Town clock tower after a long day's work. Roxas had been telling his friend all about the memory-dreams he'd been having. Axel didn't seem to find them half as interesting as Roxas or Naminé did.

Roxas had yet to get up the courage to talk to Naminé again, which was why he was dumping all of the thoughts he normally would've dumped on her (although she'd have found it interesting) on Axel. Rather than being entertained by Roxas's musings, Axel was fighting not to fall asleep.

"I dunno." Axel stifled a yawn. "Maybe Sora's been thinking a lot about her lately, and it's affecting you."

Roxas was all ears at this odd comment.

"What?!"

Axel was wide awake. "Nothing, uh, I mean, um."

"What do you mean, 'maybe Sora's been thinking a lot about her'? Sora's a heartless! I'm all that's left…" Roxas paused. "Aren't I?"

"Uh," Axel struggled to come up with a suitable excuse. He couldn't find any.

"Axel," Roxas looked at his best friend, frowning, "What do you know about Sora…about me, that I don't?"

Axel was trapped. Roxas _was _his best friend, after all. Which also meant that he knew the kid well enough to know that Roxas wouldn't leave him alone until he wheedled the answer out. He sighed in defeat. "Okay, but you didn't hear it from me." Axel sighed again. "I'm so getting fired for this."

"Axel..."

"Okay, okay. From what we know, Sora is still out there."

Roxas stared. "How…how can that be?"

"He was only a heartless long enough to leave you behind. As far as I know, it was that red headed chick that brought him back. Not sure how all that works. But yeah. As to where he is, and what he's doing now, I don't know. But don't go asking anyone in the Organization about it. You're not exactly supposed to know. Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know."

Roxas leaned back against a pillar. Sora was still alive? But, he…This was too much to take in.

Roxas felt something in his pocket that reminded him of an errand he'd yet to run. The shops should still be open at this hour, right?

He stood. "Hey Axel, I'll catch you later. I need to…clear my head."

Axel was already falling asleep again. He waved a hand. "See ya." Roxas rolled his eyes and portaled away.

XIII

Xemnas had gone into one of his spastic moods.

Xemnas's spaz moods meant that something that none of them could possibly comprehend in a million and three years had gone terribly, horribly wrong with Xemnas's master plans, and he therefore needed to lock himself in his study for days on end while he re-formulated his grand plan for world domination and whatnot.

What this translated into for the rest of the Organization was mass amounts of free time. So they would do what any hard-working person would do with their free time-absolutely nothing.

This particular day off found a game of Truth or Dare between the Organization's youngest male members: Roxas, Demyx, Axel; except Zexion, who seemed to forget he was still a teenager, and including Xigbar, who seemed to forget he _wasn't _still a teenager.

The term "Truth or Dare" can be used rather loosely here, since they were all too lazy to do Dare, and none of them particularly cared to actually tell the truth.

Their discussion revealed some interesting facts, nonetheless. For example: Xigbar was married. Emphasis on _was. _

"What happened?" Roxas asked, trying to ask without seeming nosy.

"Well, immersing myself in darkness had nothing to do with it," Xigbar replied sarcastically.

"Really? It seems to me that would be a big part of it," Demyx chirped.

No one bothered dignifying that with a response.

Xigbar continued. "We were so happy for so many years." He looked sad; his face betraying more emotion than he was supposed to be capable of feeling. Then ol' Xemmy got us started on that heartless research, and everything fell apart…Y'know the first thing I'm gonna do when I get me a heart?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Pick me, pick me! I bet I know!" Three glares quickly shut Demyx up.

Xigbar returned to his dramatic tale. "I'm gonna go see Adelaide again. I don't expect her to take me back…I just want to tell her I'm sorry…Tell her I love her…See if she's moved on, remarried, y'know. I kinda hope she did…found somebody who'll treat her good…"

Demyx appeared to be thinking hard. "How can you love her? We're not supposed to feel." He said at last.

He immediately found two rifles pointed in his direction.

"Listen here, mullet-head, I wouldn't expect a little punk like you to understand love, but get this: When you been with someone for twenty-seven years, it takes a lot more than losing yer heart to really make you stop loving them."

Demyx quailed under the shadow of Xigbar's guns. Roxas still didn't understand. A person wasn't supposed to be able to feel without a heart…

"What do you mean?" he asked his voice slightly timid due to the presence of Xigbar's firearms.

Xigbar turned his aim away from Demyx and smiled in a somewhat big-brotherish way at Roxas.

"When you really care about someone, you don't just love them with all your heart; you love them with everything you are. All your heart, all your _soul_…it stays with you…like a memory in the back of your mind, you can't completely forget it; it's there, and you'll have to square with that someday…Love is one of those things darkness can corrupt, but not completely destroy."

The room was quiet for a moment. No one had ever seen this side of Xigbar. For once the man was actually acting like he had fifty or so years of experience to live by.

Axel decided it was time to lighten the mood.

"I almost got married once."

The other three looked up at him.

"Really?" Demyx asked, wide-eyed.

Roxas glared at his best friend. "You never told me that! To who?"

Axel sniggered. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Xigbar smirked. "Try me."

Axel rolled his eyes and muttered something.

"What?" Roxas asked, leaning closer to better hear what Axel was saying.

Demyx, on the other hand, looked at Axel like he had just sprouted crayons out his ears.

"Larxene?" he shouted.

"WHAT!?" Xigbar and Roxas stared at Axel in amazement.

"Toldja you wouldn't believe me."

Roxas shook his head. "Why?"

Axel sighed and rolled his eyes. "She wasn't always psychotic…At least, not as bad as she is now."

Xigbar was smirking. "Well, I can't understand what you saw in her, but I can certainly see what went wrong."

"What did go wrong?" Demyx interjected, eager to know why in the worlds anyone would want to marry Larxene.

"I lost my heart."

"That sucks." Roxas replied.

"Ten minutes after we set a date." Axel smiled, the ironic humor keeping him from feeling depressed.

"That really sucks."

Roxas debated asking his next question; unsure of how his friend would respond. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he went ahead and asked, "Do you still love her?"

Axel's smile faded.

"I kind of still do."

Demyx, ever oblivious, smiled widely at Axel.

"Well, then it's good she's in the Organization, then, isn't it? Maybe you can still marry her one day."

Axel shook his head, smiling again. "Aah, I doubt it. Larxene kinda got most of her cynicism and psychotic tendencies after she lost me, and I don't think she's quite forgiven me for it." Axel laughed. "You wanna know the real irony? She lost her heart on our would-be wedding day."

Roxas didn't find the whole thing particularly funny, but Axel did, so Roxas kept his mouth shut.

"Let's talk about somethin' happy." Xigbar turned to Demyx. "So, Demyx, you got yourself a girl somewhere?"

Demyx turned pale. He tried to recover.

"Yes!" he said, defensively.

The other three exchanged knowing looks.

"Really," Roxas asked, smirking mischievously. "What's her name?"

"Um…Candace." Demyx said after a considerable pause.

"Where's this Candace from?" Axel was quick to follow up.

"Uh…Canada." Demyx smile, pleased with his quick response.

"Candace from Canada?" Xigbar looked highly amused.

"Yes."

"Do you have a picture?" Roxas asked, knowing the question would throw Demyx off.

It did.

"Um," Demyx began to sweat. "She uh, she doesn't like getting her photo taken." He said slowly.

Xigbar looked like he hadn't had so much fun in ten years. He was wearing a mischeviously evil smile.

"Then what's she look like?"

Demyx gulped. "Uh, short. Uh…blonde…blue eyes…great figure…um…blonde…curly hair…pretty green eyes…"

"I thought you said she had blue eyes." Roxas interjected.

"Uh, she does."

"You said green."

"Uh…she has blue-green eyes! Yeah! That's it!" Demyx was lying through his teeth; poorly.

"Can we meet her?" Xigbar asked, his eye glinting.

Demyx looked to be on the verge of panic.

"Uh, you…can't. Uh, she uh, might be freaked out…y'know, 'cause we're in the Organization and all."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Demyx, just admit you haven't got a girlfriend. There's nothing wrong if you don't."

Axel snorted.

Demyx frowned dramatically. "I DO TOO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!"

Xigbar snorted. "Candace from Canada?"

Demyx did the one thing he could think of to get himself out of this mess: He pawned the attention of on Roxas.

"Hey, Roxas, do you have a girl?"

Xigbar and Axel forgot all about Candace from Canada. (AN 4)

Roxas thought immediately of the redheaded girl from his dreams; memories, whatever. Did he like her? Roxas considered the possibility. No, he decided, he didn't. She was Sora's girl. Not his. He didn't even know her.

So, then, did he like anyone?

The next face that appeared in his mind came accompanied by stars and lights from heaven. She nearly blended in with the Castle's stark white interior, but she stood out so clearly in his mind.

Roxas heard three voices start laughing somewhere back in the real world.

"So there _is _a girl!" he heard Xigbar exclaim. Roxas realized he was blushing and wearing a goofy smile.

It was then he realized he had a crush on Naminé.

No, more than a simple crush…he couldn't describe…

"You've been holding out on me, Roxas. I want details!" Axel demanded. "Is it that redhead girl you've been dreaming about? That one Sora knew?"

Roxas shook his head. "Nah. She's Sora's girl. Not mine."

"Then who?"

Roxas's smile faded. Xemnas would be sure to disapprove if he learned that Roxas was interested in their 'guest'. But these three wouldn't tell on him, would they? They'd weasel it out of him one way or another.

"Look, as long as you promise not to tell anyone. Especially Xemnas. Or Saix, since he's a major suck up to Xemnas. I seriously doubt Xemnas would be okay with it if he found out."

The other three exchanged confused looks.

"Um, sure. Just tell us already," Axel replied.

Roxas sighed. "…Naminé."

Xigbar raised an eyebrow. Axel burst into laughter. Demyx nearly fell out of his chair.

"The little blonde artist chick?!" The musician exclaimed. Roxas grinned involuntarily.

"Who'da thunk it." Xigbar smirked.

Axel was still laughing. "So _that's why _you've been running off so much lately! You've been finding excuses so you can go see Naminé!"

"Are you dating her?" Demyx interrupted.

Roxas shook his head.

"You wanna be?"

"…well…yeah, but…"

"But what?" Xigbar asked.

Roxas sighed exasperatedly. "Well, how would I date her? I mean, she's the Organization's hostage; however Xemnas tries to glorify it. She isn't' allowed to leave this world."

The still very amused Axel interrupted him. "Without an escort-"

"And a good reason for leaving!" Roxas shot back. "And somehow I doubt Xemnas will see us dating as a good reason."

Xigbar rolled his eyes. "I thought you were smarter than that, kid. The answer is simple: lie. Besides, Xemmy's still in his 'I must go back to the drawing board to re-calculate my ascent to the throne of doom' moods. There's no telling how long he'll be in there. You could take her out and Xemnas would never know. If someone found out, you could come up with an excuse."

"Which you've gotten good at doing," Axel cut in.

Roxas looked at his shoes while he thought. It still seemed kind of risky.

Demyx, always the over-dramatic optimist, decided to accentuate his cry of "You can do it!" with an earsplitting chord on his sitar.

The subject was promptly dropped on account of the multitude of non-beings who consequently appeared to express their appreciation of Demyx's contribution to noise pollution.

* * *

A/N:1-This will make sense later, I promise.

A/N:2-The first part of that is a reference to Finding Nemo, when the sleeping Dory mutters something like, "the sea turtle has my money". Something like that.

A/N:3-Yes, he's singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.'

A/N 4-I'm totally gonna invent a Candace and start a CandacexDemyx craze. I'll call it demdace. LIKE OH-EM-GEEEE! OTP! I'M LIKE, SUCH A DEMDACE SHIPAAHR! (insert spastic preteen rabid fangirl spazzing here) Kidding.


	4. Violation

**Um, so understand this: while what happens to Namine in this chapter is quite bad, it is not so horrible that this fic would warrent a M rating were I to go into graphic detail. I'm not that mean to Namine. And while she may seem kinda wimpy right now; trust me, her moment is coming.**

**Disclaimer: yeah. no.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Violation_

As predicted, Xemnas was still in his going-back-to-the-drawing-board-to-recalculate-the-big-master-plan-for-total-universal-domination moods. Apparently, whatever had messed up had messed up bad. Saix had attempted to get an idea of how long the Superior would remain locked up, but he only lasted a minute before being shouted out by a very frustrated Xemnas. It seemed they wouldn't be seeing their leader for a while. Xemnas expected that his minions would spend this extra time doing something constructive.

Obviously he didn't know them very well.

Roxas had taken Xigbar's advice and taken advantage of Xemnas' distraction to go see Naminé. However, he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask her out quite yet.

He just hoped she wasn't still mad. He rehearsed what he would say to her as he traveled the winding white corridors to her room. At times he was frustrated by the distance to her isolated room, but on days like this, where he needed all the time he could get, the length was welcome.

As Roxas made his way down the hallways, his senses were suddenly assaulted by the unmistakable scent of cherry blossoms. Marluxia must have been nearby. A person could smell that fruit cake from halfway across the castle. Roxas paused. What would Marluxia be doing in this part of the Castle? Naminé's room was the only thing down this direction. Most of the other rooms were just for storage.

How was Roxas going to explain what he was doing down here?

The Graceful Assassin rounded a corner up ahead, and he started ever so slightly at the sight of Roxas.

"Number XIII," He acknowledged, nodding. Roxas opened his mouth to reply, but found that he couldn't remember the man's number. He'd learned it was best to respond with the other member's number when called by his own. But for the life of him, he couldn't remember; was is XI, or X? Oh well. He'd always been considered a brat anyway.

"Marluxia," Roxas replied.

The man's mouth twitched slightly at Roxas's impudence. Being the youngest member, Roxas was generally expected to acknowledge the other members with some level of authority, being the lowest among their ranks. (Never mind that without his keyblade they were toast.) It was as if they were in high school; they were the graduating seniors, and he was just the lowly freshman cowering in their shadow. Nevertheless, Marluxia passed on down the hallway, and out of sight. Roxas didn't trust him one bit. There was something about him; behind all his girlish flowery-ness, lay a cruel, sick man; Roxas was sure of it.

Upon reaching Naminé's door, Roxas was surprised to hear something like sobbing emanating through the white door. Roxas knocked lightly on the door.

"Nami? Hey, it's Roxas. You there?" He called. There was no reply. Roxas slowly opened the door and peeked in.

Naminé's sketches were scattered everywhere. She herself was curled up on the corner of her bed. She was sketching fiercely at her sketchbook, her hand moving in rapid, angry strokes. She ripped the page from her book and tossed it away. Roxas noticed her bed was surrounded by indiscernible scribbles in red crayon.

"Naminé?" he called softly. She didn't seem to notice.

"Naminé? You okay?" Naminé looked up this time, and her eyes grew wide.

"Roxas?!" She quickly hopped up and shakily began gathering the scattered sketches. There was something wrong. Roxas rushed forward.

"Naminé, what's wrong?"

Roxas came to her, and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. She avoided his eyes and shrugged off his hand.

"Naminé," Roxas asked, truly concerned now. "What happened? What's wrong?"

She continued to pick up the drawings which had been strewn all over her room. "Nothing. I'm fine."

Roxas followed her, unrelenting. Something was definitely wrong, and Roxas intended to find out what. "Naminé, you're lying. Something's wrong; what happened?"

"Nothing." Her voice was shaking. _She_ was shaking.

Roxas grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him. "Naminé, you're not yourself, something's happened. You're worrying me. I _know _something's wrong! What is it?"

She refused to meet his eyes. "Roxas, it's nothing! No big deal!" She tried to pull away, but Roxas tightened his grip on her arm.

"Naminé, listen, I can't help you unless you tell me what's wrong!" Roxas was desperate now. He hated to see her in such pain, and he had to know the cause of it. If someone hurt her…

"Nothing's wrong!" She shouted, tears streaming down her pale face.

"Naminé!" Roxas shouted back. She cringed and then shrieked as she wrenched her arm from his grasp.

As she did so, her blonde hair swung off her shoulder to hang behind her back. She stumbled a few feet away from Roxas, who was frozen in place.

"Naminé…" he said softly, eyes locked on her shoulder.

Several deep gashes, some of them looking more like puncture wounds, were dug into the flesh of her shoulder. They were blue and black and red with drying blood. Naminé stood shaking before him for a moment before she went back to picking up her papers.

"Naminé…what happened?" Roxas could barely bring his voice above a whisper. This was worse than he thought.

"I…was getting something…glass off a shelf…a high shelf… and it fell and broke… on my shoulder." she murmured, her breathing still not steady.

A wound from _anything_ made of glass wouldn't do this. Roxas had been sent crashing through enough windows to know. Horror filled his mind as Roxas thought of the man he'd seen on his way to Naminé's room.

"…Does this have something to do with Marluxia?" He asked quietly.

She couldn't have paused for more than a second, but it was all the confirmation Roxas needed. He rushed to her and gently took her face in his hands.

"Naminé, you have to tell me what happened! If he hurt you-"

She pulled away. "It's nothing, really. No big deal…"

"Naminé…"

"It could have been worse. I mean, it just, don't worry. I fought him…really, don't worry…"

"Naminé…"

"…After all, it isn't like he…" she inhaled sharply. "You shouldn't worry…It's not that important."

"Naminé." Roxas's voice was gentle yet firm. Naminé raised her tearstained eyes to meet his.

"It _is_ important. What happened?"

Naminé sighed and took a deep breath.

XIII

"Roxas!" Naminé sprinted down the hall after him. "Roxas! You don't have to do this!"

"I'll kill him!" Roxas couldn't remember ever feeling quite so livid. Yes, feeling.

Nothing could have convinced Roxas that the pure unadulterated fury pulsing through his non-being was just an illusion.

How dare he! How _dare _he!

Roxas tore down the white hallways in pursuit of Marluxia, Naminé on his heels.

"Roxas!" She shouted, pleading with him to calm down.

His anger giving him strength, Roxas found his enemy in no time.

Marluxia turned to discover why he was hearing such a racket, and found a very ticked-off keyblade master, who had just pulled out two very lethal looking keyblades.

Sparks flew from Oblivion and Lionheart as Roxas dragged them across the white marble floor towards Marluxia, who only just in time pulled his scythe up to block the assault from Oblivion. Naminé shrieked as the Graceful Assassin swung at Roxas with the large blade of his scythe. Roxas wasn't called a Keyblade Master for nothing. One blade caught the scythe and the other came crashing into Marluxia's side, sending him stumbling sideways. A twist of the wrist wrenched the scythe out of Marluxia's grasp for a moment at least. Regaining his balance, Marluxia grabbed his weapon, which Roxas's blade had flung aside, and attempted again to behead the smaller nobody.

The length of Marluxia's weapon was usually an advantage, because of the extra surface area to deter blows, but now it was the only thing between him and death (or at least fading away). Roxas's duel keyblades came at him one after the other, and there was no stopping that fury. (AN:1)

Flashes of light, clangs of metal clashing, and the next thing Marluxia was aware of was being pinned to the white wall with a keyblade on either side of his neck.

His scythe seemed to be under Roxas's foot. Marluxia couldn't turn his head to check.

About that time Marluxia began to worry.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, glaring at the fourteen-year-old _boy _who had just bested him.

" 'I was getting something glass off a high shelf and it fell and cut my shoulder.' I'm curious, did Naminé come up with that herself, or is that the excuse you told her to give to keep her quiet?" Roxas growled through clenched teeth.

"Why, Roxas, I'm sure I haven't a clue what you're talking about." Marluxia calmly replied. Big mistake. Oblivion's blade touched the skin of his neck.

"Wrong Answer. I might have believed it if there wasn't a rose thorn imbedded into her shoulder! I may not have a heart, but I've got a conscience enough not to let you hurt Naminé and get away with it." The keyblade master seethed.

Marluxia struggled to keep control. He couldn't show any signs of guilt in the matter. But his face paled anyway.

Roxas glared and leaned closer, growling so low that Naminé wouldn't be able to hear them.

"If you dare come near her again, I _swear, _I will slice you to ribbons so thin you'll make your flower petals look thick."

"So much for your conscience," Marluxia growled back.

"_You _deserve it." Roxas pressed Oblivion's blade even closer to Marluxia's skin, this time actually drawing black blood. "And if I so much as suspect that you're threatening her to keep her quiet, well, you get the idea. I suppose human remains would make great fertilizer for your garden."

Marluxia needed time to rethink this. He wanted revenge, but now was not the time to take it. A black portal appeared in the wall behind him, and he began to back into it.

"Mark my words, boy. You'll wish you didn't mess with me."

Roxas sneered. "Hmph. You'll wish you hadn't given me a reason to."

XIII

Marluxia paced back and forth in his garden.

This ruined so much; that little brat had ruined everything.

But how to get revenge?

Bringing the matter to the superior's attention was out of the question. It was quite unlikely that Roxas would end up in trouble; he was too important to the Organization. More importantly, Marluxia knew that if he reported that Roxas had attacked him, questions would be raised as to why Roxas had attacked him. Nothing good could come from those inquiries.

This also ruined his plans to overthrow the Organization. It was clear that Roxas wouldn't be joining the cause anytime soon, and he needed a keybearer. As for Sora; Marluxia had been counting on Naminé's need for a hero, and it was clear she already had one in Roxas. Equally, keeping Naminé intimidated and under his control was essential. Killing Roxas was out of the question (for the time being, at least.) If Roxas was out of the picture, the Organization would have to turn to Sora in order to complete their plans, thereby ruining his. Once Sora was in his control, he could kill Roxas, but until then, he needed the boy alive.

But his involvement with Naminé was problematic. Once Naminé was moved to Castle Oblivion Roxas would be out of the picture.

Why was the little brat so insistent upon protecting that little witch anyway? Stupid teenagers.

Marluxia froze in front of a rosebush. He turned to look at the red flowers. Flowers that were supposed to represent _love_.

Of course.

Roxas and Naminé were nobodies, so they weren't supposed to be able to feel love. But that didn't change that they were two lonely teenagers; teenagers with raging hormones.

Marluxia smirked at his rosebush. Neither could remember their past, neither knew who they really were, they were both confused children. Naminé needed a hero; Roxas needed someone to be a hero for. They were kindred spirits; or at least fancied themselves thus.

Now this could be helpful information. What better way to get revenge than to break their non-existent hearts? Get Roxas in trouble for his involvement with Naminé; tell poor Naminé that Roxas doesn't care for her, then take advantage of Naminé's rebound by dropping Sora on her doorstep at Castle Oblivion.

But how to confirm their interest in each other?

Surely Roxas had confided the information in one of his friends. Axel, perhaps. But Axel would never betray his friend's secrets. Who else would Roxas confide in? Demyx, perhaps? Would Roxas really be dumb enough to confide in that nimrod? Either way, Demyx might know something, and he was Marluxia's only lead. Perhaps there was a great way to get revenge after all.

XIII

Naminé gasped in pain.

For the hundredth, millionth time, please hold still." Roxas told her, not unkindly, as he carefully maneuvered the tweezers to remove the rose thorn from Naminé's shoulder.

"It hurts!" She whined, wiggling again.

Roxas pulled the tweezers away from her shoulder and sighed exasperatedly.

"Naminé," he said, trying to be patient. "I know it hurts, but if you keep wiggling, it's only going to hurt worse, and take me longer to pull it out. And if I don't get it out, then it's gonna get infected, and that really isn't gonna be fun."

Naminé sighed. "Okay, okay."

Roxas gave her a small smile before trying once again to remove the thorn. "I'm not trying to sound insensitive," he said as he worked, "But you really need to hold still."

Except for the occasional squeak of pain from Naminé, they were silent as Roxas dug the thorn from her shoulder. Finally Roxas was able to pull the two inch thorn from Naminé's flesh.

She winced as the thorn slid through her skin. Roxas placed the bloody thorn and tweezers on the table and began bandaging Naminé's shoulder.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Naminé said softly. Her remark caught Roxas off guard at first. Apart from Roxas's occasional admonitions to hold still, neither of them had said a word since Roxas had confronted Marluxia.

"Of course I did. The thorn needed to come out, your arm would've gotten infected," Roxas replied, focusing on applying various ointments to Naminé's arm.

The pale girl rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

Roxas paused. "I couldn't let him hurt you." He still wouldn't look at her, but appeared to be about to say something else. He paused with his mouth open, then seemed to change his mind. "I want to make sure the thorn is all out before I cast a cure spell. I think it's best to let your arm heal on its own for a few days, you know, make sure it's not infected. Cura will only heal the surface wounds. I don't have a spell strong enough to combat infection."

"…Roxas," the boy hesitantly met her gaze. She was smiling.

"Thank you. For everything," she whispered, and Roxas noticed that there were tears in her eyes. He smiled back.

"You fought back. And for that, I am insanely proud of you. I promise, I won't let him hurt you again."

Naminé then reached forward and wrapped her arms around his neck catching Roxas off guard. He felt heat rush to his face. "I know you won't "

Unsure of what else to do, Roxas hesitantly brought his arms up and wrapped them around Naminé's small frame. She felt so fragile, like she would break if he held her too tightly. But Roxas knew truth: She was quit resilient, his china doll. She wasn't made of porcelain glass; she was made of hard concrete.

XIII

AN:1- I think this is like, my first ever attempt at writing an action scene. I find that kind of sad. Also, there is a reason that Roxas doesn't have Oathkeeper yet. I'll get there, just wait. In the meantime, I figured I'd give him Lionheart since I think it'd look cooool with Oblivion.

**Wooh! Fluff! And more to come!**


	5. The Problem with Friends

**A/N: Please review and tell me why this isn't getting many. What do I need to fix? And sorry for the short chapter, but last chapter was long enough, and the next chapter really needs to stand separate from this one. Major fluff starts next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: If train A leaves the station at 3:00, traveling 50 mph, and train B leaves another station at 3:10, traveling 56 mph, and we actually care enough to ask about them, then why don't I own Kingdom Hearts? **

Much Ado About Nothing

The Problem With Friends

Things were more or less back to normal after that. Roxas and Naminé were back on speaking terms, Roxas and Marluxia avoided each other at all costs, Xemnas was still locked in his study, and showing no signs of coming out soon, and Naminé's arm healed enough for Roxas to heal it with a cure spell.

Roxas continued to visit Naminé whenever they could find an excuse to get away, and Marluxia continued to stay far away from Naminé.

Roxas was still determined to ask Naminé out, but so far every time he'd tried to ask the question, he'd gotten cold feet. He'd get halfway through the question before chickening out, so his queries ended up sounding something like, "Hey Naminé, would you like to…try a different medium, other than crayons?" or "Naminé, do you think sometime you might want to…wear something other than white?". Failure. Repeatedly.

Axel and Demyx weren't helping. The only way Demyx could keep Axel from teasing him about his Canadian girlfriend (who Demyx still maintained existed) was by bringing up Roxas's crush on their resident artist. However, as is destined to happen when one confides their personal life to one's best friends, they got majorly in the way at precisely the moment when Roxas least needed them around. The opportune moment, confidence-wise, arrived on a day where Roxas had successfully triumphed over Luxord in a game of cards. Roxas had never felt more victorious or confident, and was hoping to exercise this confidence by asking out Naminé. (He had thrashed Luxord, how could she say no?)

The trio had been traipsing about the castle plotting some evil prank that involved jalapeño peppers, rubber duckies and tube socks, when they had spotted Naminé at the end of the hallway they'd been passing. At the sight of her, all Roxas's confidence vaporized. How could he ask her out with his two friends standing there?

So, naturally, Roxas did what any fourteen-year-old boy would do when confronted with the opportunity to ask out the girl of his dreams in the presence of his two best friends who would undoubtedly tease them both till kingdom come and trumpet sound: he ran. Roxas turned on his heal and attempted to flee like all heaven and hell were on his toes. Axel and Demyx, being the wonderful friends that they are, and being ever so eager to see how Roxas acted around his crush, decided to each grab one of Roxas's arms and prevent him from running from his dearly beloved, who was watching, puzzled, from the other end of the hall.

"Ask her, now!" Axel hissed, as he and Demyx struggled to keep the frantic keyblade master from running away.

"Not now!" Roxas hissed back, feet scraping uselessly against the ground in his vain attempt at escape.

"Yes, now," Axel growled. He and Demyx then released Roxas, but not before spinning him around and pushing him towards-

"Naminé!" Roxas shouted as he found himself face to face with her.

"Hello Roxas," she said, semi-casually, choosing not to comment on his strange behavior with higher-ranking Organization members present.

"Naminé, uh, hi. What are you doing here?" He asked his mouth very dry.

Naminé raised an eyebrow. "I live here."

Roxas immediately felt incredibly stupid. He was ruining this. Why was she so easy to talk to until he wanted to ask her this? And why did Axel and Demyx have to be standing there, practically blackmailing him with their presence, as if to say, "If you don't ask her, we'll ask her for you."?

"Roxas, are you okay?" Naminé asked, truly concerned.

Roxas swallowed and attempted to pull himself together. "Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled. Axel and Demyx seemed to have started their own conversation out of boredom, and it gave Roxas some reassurance to know that they were distracted.

"Have you been busy lately? I haven't seen you in a few days," Naminé asked, quietly, since she was still unsure which members knew she and Roxas met on a regular basis.

"Oh, yeah. Kinda." She was right; it had been a few days since they'd had a chance to even speak.

"Hey," Roxas began, taking advantage of the opportunity freshly presented before him. Wouldn't it be great to interrupt his friends' conversation to tell them that he had asked Naminé out right before them and they had missed it? "Do you think, maybe, sometime, we could-"

"Hey! I wonder, if two nobodies had a kid, would their kid have a heart, or would the kid be a nobody too? Hey, Naminé, I bet you'd be the one to figure it out, since you and Larxene are the only girls here, and I don't think Larxene has the patience for motherhood. She'd probably kill the kid in one of her fits."

Demyx officially had the worst timing in the history of bad timing.

Roxas turned to stare blankly at Demyx and his sheer stupidity. Who asks something like that?

Axel was rubbing his temples. Demyx was looking super excited concerning his muse. Naminé was the first to speak up.

"Uh, I need to be going now." She said quickly. "See you later Roxas," and, as she passed him, she hissed, so that only Roxas could here her, "What have you been _telling _them?!"

Roxas glared at Demyx, who grinned back for a moment, before his look turned to one of confusion. "What?"

"Demyx," Axel stated, still rubbing at his throbbing temples, "You're an idiot."

XIII

"No! Not that! Anything but that! Do you have any idea how expensive those strings are?!" Demyx shouted from the chair he was currently gorilla-taped into.

"Do you have any idea the opportunity you just screwed up? Not to mention how badly you freaked out Naminé!" Roxas replied angrily, as he continued to saw the strings of Demyx's sitar.

"My baby!" Demyx whined. Axel promptly smacked him in the back of the head.

"I don't particularly care if you make a fool of yourself, Demyx," Roxas continued, as he cut through one of the strings, eliciting another girlish squeal from Demyx. "But if you act that idiotic in front of Naminé, then she starts wondering what I've been telling you that would make you say something like that! She probably thinks I told you guys that I'm sleeping with her and got her pregnant or something like that…Why did you have to ask something about Nobodies having kids?"

"I thought you'd find it interesting! Haven't you ever wondered what would happen if you and Naminé had kids?" Demyx pleaded, hoping that if he explained himself, Roxas would cease his brutal mutilation of Demyx's beautiful instrument.

"_She_ probably thinks I have, after you said that!" Roxas growled. "She's probably totally freaked out by me now."

"Hey, Roxas, we're out of video tape," Axel stated from his position behind Demyx.

"That's okay. We've got enough footage of Demyx spazzing to use against him later."

"But Roxas, _have _you ever thought about settling down with Naminé and having kids?" Demyx asked, trying to ignore what his friend was doing to his sitar.

"Doesn't matter," Roxas replied, trying to hide a blush, "We're fourteen and we're not even dating yet. I'd say kids are a _long _way off."

"Aww," Axel moaned in mock disappointment, "You mean we won't see any little blue-eyed-blondies in diapers running around the castle anytime soon? Other than Demyx, of course."

Roxas blushed and brandished Oblivion, which he'd been using to saw Demyx's sitar's strings, at Axel. "Shut up!"

"Oooh! I think you struck a nerve, Axel!" Demyx squeaked.

Axel grinned evilly. "Oh, c'mon little buddy, can't you just picture them? I wonder if they'd have straight hair like Naminé, or if their hair would stick up all over the place like yours?"

"I said shut _up!"_

"Aw! I can see the little darlings now, scribbling all over the castle walls with Naminé's crayons! I bet they'll inherit their mommy's artistic talent!"

"And then they'll beg daddy to tell them about all the heartless he's killed with his keyblade!"

"Oooh, Roxie, can I be the godfather?"

_Twang!_

"NOOO!" Demyx screamed as Roxas sliced through the remaining three strings with a single blow.

Axel and Demyx decided it was time to leave Roxas alone about Naminé.

* * *

A/N: Very short, but the next chapter was so important that I didn't want to attach it to this one. We're getting close to the middle. 

Reviews are appreciated. I'm not getting many, which tells me that something isn't working. However, unless you tell me _why _this isn't working, then I can't fix it and make it better. Just because most of this is written, doesn't mean that I won't go back and edit.

Spring Break starts today. I'm going to Florida. But I'm going to post the next chapter before I leave. **Fluff starts next chapter.**


	6. A Gift from the Heart

**A/N: Showering infinite thanks upon the few but amazing fans this story has! You guys are AWESOME witha capital R! Yes, a R. You are so AWESOME that spelling is below you. BTW, if you're fans of Roxine, may I suggest my futurfic ON SWiTCH? Anyway, thanks so much to you few, wonderful people you! The promised fluff starts here!**

**Disclaimer: I'm getting over a stomach bug. As I was throwing up my stomach the other night, I threw up alot of things. But not the rights to KH, since I never had those to begin with. **

Much Ado About Nothing

A Gift from the Heart

_Knock knock knock_

"Come in."

Silence followed. Naminé looked up from her drawing towards the door. Perhaps she hadn't been heard.

"Come in," she called, louder this time.

Still no reply.

Roxas wasn't that deaf, was he? Maybe it was someone else. Naminé rose from her seat and answered the door. However, when she opened it, she found the hallway to be empty. She peeked around the corners of the door and examined the corridor for traces of life. Finding nothing, Naminé decided that whoever it was must not have needed her; or someone was playing a trick, more likely. She took a step into the hall, only to stumble on something sitting outside her door.

Naminé looked down to see that she had tripped over a long, large white box. Due to its lack of color it had blended so well with the rest of the corridor that she had completely missed it. Naminé bent down to examine the package. She was surprised to find her name printed neatly on the side of the box.

With one more weary glance around the hallway, Naminé collected the box and carried it inside.

Naminé puffed a sigh as she carefully placed the package on her table. It was rather heavy, but it didn't seem to contain anything breakable. All the same, she handled it with utmost care; which was difficult to do since the package was quite bulky.

Naminé hesitated to open the box. She didn't get mail. No one ever bothered to give her gifts, except for the occasional trinket or sea-salt ice-cream Roxas picked up on his missions. What if this was some sort of trap or trick? There were several Organization members who would probably find tormenting her amusing.

After a few minutes of deliberation, Naminé's curiosity got the better of her. She slit the clear packaging tape that secured the lid.

"I bet I'll end up regretting this," She murmured to herself.

Naminé slowly, carefully, painstakingly opened the box. Nothing jumped out at her; nobody jumped out at her. Nothing. She removed the lid completely and sat it on the table beside the box. Naminé cocked her head to the side. Massive layers of white tissue paper concealed the package's contents, but sitting on top of the tissue was a small folded card.

Naminé carefully picked up the card and opened it.

"Dear Naminé," she read aloud. "Every girl should get to wear one once in her life; even girls who don't exist." Naminé blinked. What in the worlds? She turned the card over. There was no name. At the bottom was a tiny inscription that read, "The hour the clock doesn't chime." Like _that _helped. The handwriting was done meticulously neatly; like a person with bad handwriting had striven to print legibly. (AN1)

Naminé shrugged and moved aside the tissue paper.

"Oh!" Naminé gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth.

She gazed in awe at her gift; amazed even before she'd fully unwrapped it.

Naminé grinned uncontrollably as her eyes filled with tears of the joy she shouldn't have been able to feel.

XIII

Xemnas had finally emerged. Apparently he had recalculated his master plan of doom. For Roxas, it changed nothing, since for the time being only the higher ranking members had orders to carry out. When Roxas had asked what he was supposed to do, he had been told simply to "stay out of the way." (This from Xaldin.) And to "kill a few heartless every once in a while, while you're at it, squirt." (This from Xigbar.).

Having the majority of the Organization attempting to ignore him worked out well for Roxas when it came to finding a chance to see Naminé. Xemnas didn't particularly care what he was doing as long as he was out of the way.

He hadn't heard Naminé mentioned, either, so it didn't seem that she was needed at the moment either.

Now, just to find the courage to face her…

XIII

Roxas cautiously raised a hand and knocked on Naminé's door. There was no reply for a moment, and then he heard her chirp "Come in!" Chirp. Naminé _chirped. _Naminé never chirped.

Roxas opened the door and was immediately taken aback by the display of radiance before him.

Naminé stood, in the center of the room, dressed in a full length, decorative, elegant wedding dress.

The dress was strapless, but modestly cut. The skirt was form fitting at the hips, and floor length in front, but it billowed out like in a mermaind tail and became gradually longer and fuller towards the back, its length forming quite a train. The entire dress was brilliantly white and extravagantly detailed. Crystal beads curled and curved in elegant designs along the entire dress, and sparkled with each movement. A string of pearls formed something like a belt around her hips, ending in a small silk ribbon bow in the back, below where the back of the bodice laced up like a corset. Intricate white lace, several inches in length, edged the skirt's hem. (AN2)

Her hair was the same as it always was, except for the silk flower-barrettes that held her long glittery veil behind her head. Strings of pearls hung from the barrettes. Roxas was glad that she wasn't covering her face with the veil; such loveliness shouldn't be hidden. In addition, she was wearing a pair of sparkling pearl earrings.

She was positively beaming at him. So brightly white was the dress and so brilliant did she appear that Roxas could have sworn that her walls were grey, not white. He'd thought the dress looked good on the mannequin; this was one million times better.

Naminé, still grinning, took a step towards him. It struck Roxas that she looked much older than fourteen in this dress.

"You did this."

It was a statement, not a question. She already knew it was him. She was breathless as she said it, amazed at his kindness.

Roxas nodded and shrugged. He didn't know what to say.

"How…why…Roxas…this…" Naminé didn't seem to know what to say either.

"You wanted a chance to wear one," Roxas mumbled, unable to take his eyes off her.

"Why would you do this for me?" She whispered, taking a few more steps towards him.

Roxas shrugged again and looked at his feet. "No big deal."

Naminé chuckled. "Roxas," she breathed, still laughing, "I'm in a _wedding dress._ Because of _you. _This is a _huge _deal."

He looked up at her again. "I'm glad you like it."

She giggled. "How couldn't I?" She spun around, and the skirt billowed out, giving Roxas the tiniest peek at the sparkling white high-heeled shoes she was wearing underneath.

"I hope it fits. I kinda took one of your dresses to get the size right." Roxas grinned sheepishly.

"It fits like a glove," she assured him, giving another little twirl to prove it.

She turned to look at herself in the full length mirror behind her. "The detail…how much did this cost?"

Roxas chuckled darkly. "More than I care to think about. I'm just glad you like it. Makes all those heartless I had to kill to get the munny worth it." (AN3)

Naminé grinned even wider at her reflection. "I love it. It's a lot like my drawing, except more detailed, and more beautiful." She sighed. "I just can't believe…that you actually _did _this…" Her smile faded slightly. "Talk about all dressed up and nowhere to go." She turned to face Roxas. "Here I am in a wedding dress and I'll never be a bride."

Roxas walked to her and took her hands in his. Naminé was a bit startled by his actions, but she didn't pull away. "Roxas…" she muttered quietly, her voice indicating her confusion at Roxas's proximity.

He leaned closer to her, and whispered,

"You stole my heart even though I haven't got one to steal," Naminé's eyes grew large. "I'd say you can wear a wedding dress even though you aren't a bride."

(AN4)

Naminé had seemed breathless before, but now she was positively winded. The corners of her lips tugged up into an involuntary smile. She managed to suck in breath, but couldn't seem to remember how to let it out.

Roxas smiled at her and leaned in all the way, capturing her smiling lips. He heard Naminé gasp as he kissed her, but she didn't pull away.

They were an overwhelming anomaly. Roxas wasn't aware he knew how to kiss, but he was kissing the bride who was not a bride, because he loved her even though he shouldn't have been able to.

Light years away, a knight and his princess felt something stir within them; they felt closer than ever, even though their hands and the ground beneath their feet had just slipped apart…

_I'll come back to you, I promise!_

_I know you will!_

XIII

* * *

AN1: "The hour the clock doesn't chime." Or, 13, as in Roxas! 

AN2: I want to go into dress or costume design when I grow up; can you tell? I'm going to have to illustrate this part when I find time (maybe this week when I go to the beach)

AN3: I imagine a couple of hours in front of Memory's Skyscraper should have done it.

AN4: Squeeeeeeeeee!!! I came up with that line and it still makes me squeel everytime I read it. Smooth, Roxie, smooth. I always picture him as being much smoother with the girls than Sora could ever hope to be.

Seeing as this marks the point where KH1 ends, we're moving into the midpoint of this story, and the end of this time frame. There's still about 3 chapters until we get to the Namine-centric part of the story, and then several chapters packed with RxN fluff...but the question is...which R? She's getting sneeky now! This is probably the last chapter till I get back from Spring Break. We're leaving tomorrow, and I don't think our room has internet access. Anyway, hopefully the fluff will keep you satisfied until then. I'm also going to start work on my sokai companion to ON SWiTCH, as well as other stories from that setting.

Thanks once again to my few fantastic reviewers and fans on this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cookies rain upon you!


	7. One Short Day Part 1

**This chapter (and really, this whole fic; but especially this chapter) is dedicated to Jesus, because yesterday was Easter Sunday, and if it weren't for Him, I wouldn't even be able to write, or think, or live freely. No matter what your religeon, you cannot deny that anyone willing to give up everything for His children is AWESOME!!**

**AN: Chapter title is from the musical Wicked (which sadly, I have yet to see). The song 'One Short Day' is sung when Elphaba and Galinda visit the Emerald City. It's also longer than normal. **

**Thank you to my reviewers; you are all awesome and great and I'm so happy you like my story!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, my Kairi cosplay for next weekend's convention would have already been finished (or at least started...)**

Much Ado About Nothing

_One Short Day: Part 1_

Roxas cracked open the door to his bedroom and peeked out into the dark hallway beyond. Well, semi-dark hallway. The stark-white hallways of this world never seemed to get darker than a dark grey, even midnight in the middle of winter.

It was probably safer to portal to Naminé's room; that way he didn't have to worry about getting caught. Then again, it was more likely someone would sense his portaling in this area of the castle. It would be a lot less noticeable in the isolated recesses of the castle where Naminé's room was located.

Roxas took one last cautious look around the hallway before stepping out into it and silently closing the door behind him.

He looked down at himself. Perfect. His normal clothes blended in better with the dull, dark hallway than his black organization coat did. Hey, those hallways never got _that _dark.

XIII

Roxas had had to creep ever so quietly through the hallways up to this point. The corridors leading to Naminé's isolated room were filled with nothing but storage rooms, meaning it was very unlikely anyone would hear him.

Finally, he reached Naminé's door and paused in front of it. Roxas took a minute to take a deep breath, straighten his jacket, readjust his rings, and run a hand through his messy hair to ensure it was messed up at _just _the right angle.

Pleased with his appearance, he gently knocked on the door. Three knocks, followed by a pause and another short knock; as always when he needed to ensure she was alone.

Naminé quickly answered and silently ushered him in, smiling.

She was dressed the same as she always was, except for small white pearl earrings, and a white messenger bag that hung from one shoulder across her chest to hold her sketchbook and crayons. Roxas couldn't tell very well in the dim light of her room, but she appeared to be wearing the tiniest bit of makeup.

"Ready?" Roxas whispered. Naminé nodded. She then pointed to a note on her table. Roxas glanced it over.

_Needed more art supplies. Roxas volunteered to take me to Twilight Town to get new supplies. We may hit Traverse Town if I can't find the supplies I need in Twilight Town. I need certain, special supplies, so it may take us a while. Few stores carry the brands I need. I may also have to buy a new sketchbook. My paper preferences make it difficult to find the right sketchbook, so that may also take a while. We'll be back by night time._

_-Naminé_

Roxas nodded his approval. He had left a similar note in his own room, explaining that he had volunteered to take Naminé art supply shopping, since she had come to him asking if there were any more supplies somewhere in the castle. Hopefully they wouldn't have to use these excuses, but if they did, it didn't hurt to be prepared.

"Let's go." Roxas whispered, and opened a portal to Twilight Town.

Naminé slid her hand into his, and followed him in.

XIII

"Wow," Naminé gasped, as she and Roxas stepped out of their portal onto the front steps of the train station in Twilight Town. Normally Roxas wouldn't have portalled to such a conspicuous location, but since it was the wee hours of the morning, and nobody in their right mind would be awake at this hour, he thought it fine. Despite being such an ungodly hour, the Twilight Town sky was, as always, stuck mid-sunset. Naminé raced to the stone wall that guarded people from falling off the edge of the hill atop which the station was placed. She gazed out at the town, quiet in the early hours.

Roxas ran to catch up with her. "You seem quite amazed for someone who was 'born' in this town."

Naminé sighed. "I _was _born here, but the Organization never lets me out. This is the first time I've been here in a while. The sunset is so beautiful…I'm going to have to draw it while we're here…" (AN 1)

Roxas smiled. "You could draw it now. It's still really early. Nothing's going to be happening for a while yet, even though this world is on a bit different time schedule than the one we're used too. It's about an hour until the stores start opening. You can draw it while we wait."

Naminé grinned and started pulling her sketchbook out of her bag.

"Wait," Roxas said, a light bulb appearing above his head.

Naminé frowned. "But you just said-"

"You need a better view." Roxas said, grinning. He left Naminé no time to reply as he grabbed her hand and pulled her off towards the station.

XIII

"This is definitely a better view!" Naminé smiled as she stared out at the view from the top of the Station clock tower.

She tentatively stepped closer to the edge, looking over. She gasped and stumbled backwards into Roxas's arms. Roxas took advantage of the opportunity and spun her around to face him before stealing a kiss.

Naminé smiled. "You're going to be stealing kisses all day, aren't you?"

Roxas gave her a cheeky grin and kissed her again. "I'm sorry."

"What makes you think I was objecting?" Naminé gave him a coy smile and pulled away, sitting down against one of the columns behind them. She flipped open her sketchbook and pulled out her crayons. She looked at the sunset long and hard before she began working on her masterpiece. (AN 2)

Roxas smiled and watched her draw.

She didn't look quite so pale in this light. And yes, he'd been right, she _was _wearing makeup. Not much, just a touch of colored lip gloss, a bit of mascara, perhaps.

Even that little bit was unnecessary, though.

Roxas smiled dreamily at her.

Naminé seemed to be slightly aware of his staring, and her awareness seemed to be increasing. Finally she looked up at him. "What?" She said innocently.

Roxas shook his head. "Nothing." Naminé blinked and went back to her drawing. A minute later she stopped and huffed a sigh.

"Roxas!"

"What?"

Naminé laughed. "What are you doing?"

Roxas shrugged innocently. "What are you talking about?"

Naminé rolled her eyes. "Quit, that" she gestured at him, "staring…thing."

Roxas smiled. "Sorry."

"What are you staring at anyway?"

"Well," Roxas took a deep breath. "You look really beautiful in this light, Naminé."

Naminé took a moment for the comment to register. Then she fought to repress a smile.

She flipped her hair and went back to her drawing, muttering something about "…just saying that…"

"No, really, it's true! You look less pale, less white. I don't know…more colorful. It's like, behold! The girl has pigment! Not that you aren't always beautiful…"Roxas quickly added.

Instead of reassuring her, this comment seemed to set off a bomb inside of Naminé's head. She frowned and grabbed a red crayon, and began practically grinding it into the paper.

Roxas couldn't make out what she was muttering but he caught something about "…more like Kairi…"

Roxas frowned. "You're not still on about that are you?"

Naminé abruptly stopped her drawing and glared up at him. "What?"

"Kairi. You're not still jealous of her are you?"

Naminé's glare intensified. "Who said I was jealous of Kairi?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Well, you got all upset when I talked about her."

Naminé tried to shrug it off. "I just…got tired of hearing about her."

"Because you were jealous."

"No." Naminé went back to her sketching, attempting to ignore him.

"It doesn't make sense for you to be jealous of her anyway."

"I'm not."

"After all, she's Sora's girl. Not mine."

"I'm not jealous."

"But it makes sense that you'd think I liked her."

"Not that I do."

"But it makes more sense that Sora's nobody should be in love with Kairi's nobody, don't you think?"

Naminé looked up, confusion in her eyes as she stared at Roxas's smile.

"…when did you figure it out?" She murmured.

"After I got a good solid image of Kairi in my mind. I realized not long after that that I liked you, and then one day it clicked." Roxas said softly.

Naminé smiled. "I…well…"

"Sh," Roxas put a finger to her lips. "Why would I need her? I've got you."

He leaned closer, but Naminé's giggle stopped him. "You _are _going to be stealing kisses all day!"

Roxas grinned. "I thought you weren't objecting."

Naminé leaned closer still. "I'm not."

And her lips prevented his reply.

XIII

The sleepy town had begun to awaken, and was quickly becoming the bustling burg Roxas was used to seeing. He and Naminé had spotted a crowd gathering at the sandlot, and decided to see what the big to-do was about.

They pushed their way through the cheering crowd to get to a spot closer to the front. As they reached the front, Naminé tripped, and stumbled into a girl of about their age with brown pigtails and green eyes.

The two girls went tumbling to the ground, and Roxas quickly leaned over to help them both up.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Naminé squealed.

"No really, it's okay." The girl said, refusing Roxas's hand and picking herself up off the ground. She dusted off her orange tee-shirt and khaki pants as she apologized.

"I'm really sorry," Naminé said again, "I tripped over something. I'm so sorry!"

The girl shook her head. "No, really, it's okay. Hey, you two don't look very familiar. Are you from out of town?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah."

The girl seemed persistent to break through Roxas's wall. "I'm Olette."

"Roxas."

Naminé rolled her eyes. "I'm Naminé. Excuse the stone wall; he's not used to making friends." (AN 3)

"Hey!"

"Well it's _true._"

"Is not!"

Naminé laughed. "Oh yeah, name all your friends."

"You, Axel, the melodious nimrod, uh…"

"My point exactly."

Olette giggled. "So are you two in town for the struggle tournament?"

"The what?"

Roxas had never been very apt to try and be friendly to the inhabitants of the various worlds he'd visited, but Naminé possessed but one friend, and so for her sake he decided to be friendly to this Olette. Roxas had never seen Naminé so giggly. She and Olette had only met five minutes ago, and already they seemed to be best friends.

Then it hit him.

Naminé was a fourteen-year-old girl who lived in a castle with eleven men who either ignored her or abused her; the only female role model in her life was a sadistic witch who never bothered to be kind to her. Roxas was the only friend she had, and he was a guy. Roxas smiled. Maybe this friendship would be good for her.

"I got sea-salt ice-cream!" The announcement came from a teenage boy with dark brown hair, who, in Roxas's opinion, probably didn't need anymore ice-cream.

(AN 4)

"Hey Pence!" Olette greeted, "This is Roxas and Naminé. They're from out of town. Roxas, Naminé, this is Pence."

"Hello,"

"Hey,"

"Sorry, I've only got enough ice cream for me and Olette. But if you guys want some, I'll be glad to go back and get more!" Pence said, smiling apologetically.

"Sounds great. Thank you," Naminé chirped.

Roxas simply grunted, until Naminé stepped on his foot.

"Thanks."

"I'll go and get it," Olette chimed in, "Naminé, you have to come with me. There's this totally awesome accessory shop just around the corner near the ice cream stand!"

Naminé's eyes lit up. "Sure!"

She gave Roxas a peck on the cheek, which was really a cover up for her to whisper, "_Be nice!",_ and the two giggling girls took off through the crowd.

Roxas blushed and rubbed at his cheek.

Pence laughed and handed Roxas one of the ice creams. "Girls. Olette must be exited about having another girl to shop with. Usually she just drags me or Hayner along."

"Hayner?"

"Our other friend. He's participating in the struggle match." Pence looked at his watch. "Those girls better hurry, the match should be starting soon. So, Roxas, I take it Naminé is either you're girlfriend or your sister."

XIII

"He bought you a _wedding dress_?!"

Naminé giggled at the amazed look on Olette's face. "I know! He does things like that. Crazy, ridiculous, romantic things that make me question his sanity but that are so sweet I couldn't care less if he was insane because he's so adorable!"

"Wow…" Olette was so caught up in their conversation that she failed to notice that the line for the ice cream stand, in which they were currently standing, had started moving, and the two of them were currently holding it up.

"Move it!"

"Sorry!" The two girls squealed, taking a few steps.

"I wish I could have a love like that," Olette said dreamily. "It must be wonderful, to have a guy who would do something as insanely romantic as buying you a wedding dress. But he seems so stoic." (AN 5)

"He's a bit anti-social. But underneath it all he's just a big sappy cuddle bunny. It's just that he doesn't get out like this much. We're really not even supposed to be here today. But we hardly ever get to see each other, and when the opportunity presented itself…"

"Strict parents?" Olette asked.

Naminé smiled. "Something like that."

XIII

"Ready, set, Let's STRUGGLE!!"

"Go Hayner!" Olette and Pence cheered animatedly as the four of them watched Twilight Town's resident attitude problem duke it out with the self appointed head of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee.

"You'd be pretty good at this, Roxas." Naminé told him. She and Roxas weren't really sure who to root for; they felt strange about rooting for Hayner since they didn't know him, but they couldn't root for Seifer, since there was apparently some bad blood between his gang and their new found friends.

"Hyeh!" Seifer's attempt to gain the upper hand by tripping Hayner backfired when Hayner's foot, sent flying into the air when he was sent flying head over heals, whacked Seifer in the face, knocking him out. This momentary incomprehendable insanity lasted long enough for Hayner to grab a dozen or so of Seifer's orbs.

"And the winner is…Hayner!"

The blond, albeit a bit dizzy, beamed brilliantly at the cheering crowd, and smirked at Seifer, who was still unconscious.

Roxas was cheering quite loudly. He rather liked this sport. He might be quite good this Struggle thing. After all, he _was _quite an accomplished swordsman.

"…Roxas!" Roxas looked at Naminé, who had suddenly grasped his arm and pointed at a roof top. She had a look of pure terror on her face. Roxas, worried, followed her finger to see several dusks, dancers, and assassins running along the roof tops.

"Those are Marluxia's!" She shrieked. "Roxas, if they find out what we're doing, they're gonna kill me!"

"Oh no…" The dancer's were probably Demyx's, but still; the fact that Marluxia's forces were in Twilight Town was definitely worrisome.

Naminé was on the verge of a panic attack. Marluxia terrified her more than anyone else; even more than Xemnas. Xemnas typically ignored her; Marluxia had actually done her serious mental and physical harm.

"Roxas!" Naminé squealed. Roxas wrapped his arms around her protectively.

"Olette, Pence!" The two turned to look at the worried keyblade master and his hyperventilating girlfriend.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Olette asked concernedly.

"No," Roxas's mind was racing as he tried to think of a solution. He and Naminé were supposed to be art supply shopping; not watching a struggle battle. "Look, Pence, Olette, it was nice meeting you, but we need to go."

"Now! Roxas!" Naminé was freaking out, and it was all Roxas could do to keep her from having a nervous breakdown.

"What's wrong?" Pence asked.

"We need to go. Look, no one can know we were here. If anyone asks about us; especially anyone in a black coat, lie. Tell them you have no clue. We were never here."

Olette and Pence exchanged looks. "Um, sure, but-"

"Roxas!"

"Look, I know it sounds kind of suspicious, but let's just say that our lives are really complicated and that there are people who would do us serious harm if they knew we'd been here. Especially Naminé. So if anyone asks-"

"We never saw you." Pence smiled understandingly.

Roxas smiled, and so did Naminé, although she was still trying to calm down. "Thanks. See ya." He gave them a wave.

He and Naminé quickly made their way through the thick crowds. They exited the sandlot out into the Back Alley, and after insuring no one was around to see, Roxas summoned several dusks and samurais.

"Listen, I need you to keep an eye on Marluxia and his nobodies, as well as on any other members of the Organization. Keep them busy; distract them if you have to. Don't let them find us. Report back to me if they are somewhere near us." Roxas commanded. The dusks nodded and disappeared.

"Roooxaaas!" Roxas turned to Naminé, who was still panicking.

"Nami, calm down. This doesn't have to ruin our day. We'll just go to a different part of town. It's a big city, they won't find us. We'll take a train down to Sunset Terrace. There's plenty to do in that area."

"Are you sure?"

Roxas wasn't sure. He wasn't sure at all. But he needed to be strong for Naminé, which is why he lied.

"Positive."

* * *

AN 1: I assume Namine was born in Twilight Town. She and Roxas were born at the same time-when Sora stabbed himself with the dark keyblade- and since Roxas was born there, I assume Nami was too.

AN 2: As they're so young, I've injected a degree of childishness to the fluff. Sort of like sixth graders, you know? I've been observing the Freshmen; maturity is not abounding in their romance. However, Namine and Roxas are rather mature for their age. It's a fine line; what can I say?

AN 3: I heard in an interview Nomura mentioned that in 358/2 Days, there wouldn't be as much interaction between Roxas and Disney charecters because Roxas's personality wasn't such that he would pursue friendships with them. So I'm writing Roxas as being a bit anti-social and a brooding loner. ('cept when he's with Nam)

AN 4: Well...he doesn't...this isn't supposed to be bashing. I love Pence!

AN 5: "...I wish I could have a love like that..." Never have more autobiographical words have I written.

This one is a bit longer than usual, and it was actually going to be longer, but it was coming out insanely long, so I cut it in half. Part 2 will be up soon. Hopefully. There's an anime convention in town next weekend, and I haven't even started on my costume...I haven't had time! I was going to go as Kairi, but her pink dress (you gotta love that it's held together by zippers) will take too long, so I may go as Namine. That can't take long at all! And I'd have an excuse to carry my sketchbook around all day! Anyway, thanks to all my lovely reviewers! You guys rock!

Happy Easter! Don't forget to say thank you to Jesus!


	8. OSD p2: Love Like the French

**AN: Yay, chapter 7! I wanted to get it up sooner, but I've been uber busy. I'll try to get it updated sooner next time. Specially since...nevermind. Just read and see!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KH. But I do own an Oathkeeper necklace, and an Organization XIII coat! And an Axel button, and my stepbro made a keyblade and...**

Much Ado About Nothing

_One Short Day part 2: Love like the French_

"Roxas, you really shouldn't have…"

Naminé was referring to the set of beautiful and expensive watercolors that Roxas had just bought her.

"First my wedding dress, now these. Roxas, this relationship is going to completely deplete your wallet if you don't stop buying me things all the time."

Roxas decided that this was probably true. He and Naminé had calmed down a bit since they'd spotted Marluxia's nobodies earlier. They had taken a train down to the Sunset Terrace and were now spending some time in that part of town. They hadn't seen any more nobodies, and Roxas's dusks hadn't reported anything, so they managed to relax and enjoy their day.

Naminé had pointed out that since art supply shopping was the excuse they had used to get her out of the castle, they might as well do some while they were there. This had led to Naminé getting so excited over a set of watercolor paints that Roxas had decided to buy them for her.

They'd been walking down a business alley lined with shops, joking and laughing when all of sudden Naminé froze. Roxas paused and looked back at her, confused. She was staring at one of the shops, a faraway look in her eyes.

"Naminé?" Roxas followed her line of vision and immediately saw what was wrong with her. She was staring at a flower shop; more specifically, a shop with a large display of red roses as well as roses in various other colors.

"Naminé?" Roxas asked again. She didn't answer. He wrapped his arms around her from behind. "I won't let him hurt you…You don't need to worry."

Naminé looked down at her feet and nodded, taking a deep breath. "Thanks…"

"Come on," Roxas spun her around to face him, smiling. "I know something that'll cheer you up. The beautiful view from Sunset Hill has been known to heal many a sour face."

Naminé smiled. "Sure."

XIII

"Wow…" Naminé was left speechless for what felt like the millionth time that day. The sun's position in this town never changed, but somehow the Twilight Town sky never ceased to amaze her. Kind of like Roxas.

"I'm going to paint this." She announced, pulling out her new watercolors.

(AN 1)

Roxas smiled and sat down beside her in the grass. He loved to watch her at work.

"Hey Roxas?"

"Yeah?"

Naminé hesitated. "Do you think love is a feeling?"

Her question took him by surprise.

"I guess so," Roxas answered. "Why?"

Naminé looked up at him for a moment, seemingly considering something. She looked back at her drawing.

"Well, its just…I heard someone once say that it isn't a feeling…that's it's a choice…I don't know."

Roxas thought about this. "Well, I guess…in some ways, it is a choice. I mean, you kind of have to choose to love someone."

Naminé looked up at him. "Well that's just it! Sometimes you can't help it! I hardly knew you and I still couldn't help but fall for you. I didn't exactly _choose _to lo-like you till I made myself except the fact that I liked you as more than a friend."

Roxas blushed at this new bit of information. What about his own feelings? Had he _chosen _to love her, or had he simply fallen? Well, that was easy to answer. He'd fallen. Hard and fast. So then what was love? A noun or a verb?

"I don't know…It's just…This language is so stupid. We only have one word for love, really. For the noun and the verb, I mean. Not like French." She mused.

This really caught Roxas off guard. What did French have to do with anything? "What?"

"The French language has a different word for love if you're talking about it as a noun or a verb. If you mean love as a verb, it's adorer or aimer, which means to love or to like, respectively. But if you mean a noun, it's amour." (AN 2:pronounciation)

Roxas stared. "Where did you learn that?

Her answer knocked him even further off guard.

"Demyx."

"Demyx?"

She nodded. "He was babysitting me once, right after the Organization found me, before we met. He was writing a letter, and I was really curious about it. Anyway, I think he thought I thought he was ignoring me, because he told me that he was sorry but that he really needed to get it written. Well, when I asked him about it, he said he was writing it to his girlfriend."

"Demyx had a girlfriend?"

Naminé nodded. "Yup. Anyway, he was writing in French, because when I tried to read it over his shoulder, I couldn't read a word. He taught me the French words for love."

Roxas nodded. "Okay, so I'm with you know. But still, how does this fit in with your overall thought again?"

Naminé paused her painting for a moment to figure out where her thought train had derailed. "Okay, well, I guess it's just that sometimes love is a verb, and sometimes it's a noun. I mean, it isn't fair to say that love's a noun because it's something you _do_, but you can't say it's just a verb, because it's something you _feel._"

Roxas felt like he needed a chart; one with arrows and pictures.

"I mean, you feel amour, and adorer is something you do. You can feel amour for someone without consciously having to adorer them." She giggled. "I'm _so _murdering the French language. "And it's possible for tu adores, that's French for 'you to love' without feeling love for someone. Get it?" (AN 3)

"Sort of."

That might certainly explain why he still loved her even though he wasn't supposed to be about to feel.

"You know," she began, her muse apparently bringing her elsewhere. "So much of what we think about our ability to love is based on assumptions and presumptions."

Roxas didn't follow this. "What do you mean?" Yes, definately a chart with arrows and maps and pictures...

Naminé tapped her brush against her lips. "Well, first we assume that we can't love. Why can't we love?"

"Because we can't feel."

"Well, and that conclusion comes from assuming that love is a feeling. Now, we go back to the whole thing about not being able to feel. Why can't we feel?"

"Because we don't have hearts."

"Once again, the assumption is that one must have a heart to feel. Now, most feelings come from the heart, but what-"

"What about the soul!" Roxas exclaimed, his muse finally catching up with her own.

Naminé brightened up. "Exactly!"

Suddenly something Xigbar once said came back to Roxas. "You know, what if that's it. I mean, Xigbar once told me that the reason he still loved his wife, even though he didn't have a heart anymore, is because when you really love someone, you love them with your heart _and _your soul. Well, what if it works like that with other emotions?"

Suddenly so much was making sense. "So, like all the really deep feelings we felt when we had hearts, all the really true ones, that effected us so deeply, into our souls, are the ones we still remember how to feel even after we lose are hearts."

Roxas smiled. "Yeah!"

This was one of the things Roxas loved about spending time with Naminé. She activated his mind and helped him see things in a light he'd never seen them in before. She was like electricity, pumping through him; energizing him and all that his mind could think of. She inspired his muse and fed his soul, waking it up to all the possiblities he'd never considered.

"That would explain why all the Organization members act the way they do. Larxene, for example. She's always angry, but Axel said she was always a sadistic you-know-what. Anger and hate is just ingrained into her soul, into who she is." Roxas explained.

Naminé smiled, glad to have someone interested in her thoughts. "And us."

"Us?"

"Well, Sora and Kairi were always in love, weren't they? So since that was so deep in their souls, then we ended up in love." She wouldn't look at him as she said this. She was focusing on her painting. She appeared to be blushing, but she was so pale that Roxas couldn't tell if she was truly blushing or if it was because of the red light of the setting sun.

"Love?"

Naminé paused, then nodded. Roxas was too shocked to say anything, so he simply sat there and watched her paint.

Naminé too was silent. She appeared to finish her painting, because she returned her supplies to her messenger bag.

She shyly held her painting up to show Roxas. "What do you think?" She asked softly.

Roxas smiled. "I love it."

Naminé looked up at him nervously. "Really?"

"Yes."

Naminé smiled. "You don't mean that…" she returned her sketchbook to her bag and stood, walking over to the fence that guarded residents of Sunset Hill from tumbling onto the train tracks below.

Roxas, worried, stood and followed her. He stood beside her and watched the tiny girl carefully. She suddenly looked sad.

"Naminé, why are you always so down on yourself?" He asked.

The pale girl sighed. "Because, what is there about me to _like_? I'm a nobody. I'm a witch. I screw with people's memories…What's so attractive about that?" She said sadly.

"Hey," Roxas turned her to look at him. "I'm a nobody. I'm with a group that's trying to take over the universe. I'm a _murderer._ I steal hearts as a profession…and you still care about me. You're too hard on yourself, Naminé. You need to look on the good side every now and then."

"But…"

Roxas shushed her. "No buts. You managed to find the good in me; believe it or not, there's some good in you. You're an amazing and talented artist. You're beautiful, you're practically a princess. You're sweet and angelic and incredibly forgiving." (AN 4)

Naminé really did blush at this.

"You're lovable, rather you know it or not."

Naminé eyes widened. "…really?"

Roxas leaned in closer. "Really."

"Roxas…" Naminé cooed, leaning in to his kiss.

"I love you." He murmured against her lips, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"How touching."

The two teens abruptly ended their kiss and jumped apart.

"Roxas?!" Axel exclaimed, as he stepped out of the portal Marluxia had just exited.

"Marluxia…" Roxas said breathlessly. Naminé squealed and cowered behind Roxas, who summoned his keyblades, prepared to defend her if things got out of hand.

Marluxia smirked. Axel stood behind him, looking something halfway between disappointed and apologetic.

"I'm sorry," He mouthed to Roxas.

"Roxas, Naminé. This is quite a surprise. Let's not let this get out of hand, shall we? After all, I told Xemnas we'd be there shortly."

XIII

* * *

AN 1: Um, so this would be the kind of watercolor set that would have the necessary supplies one needs for doing quick watercolor paintings...like, water...and special paper...

AN 2: 'adorer' is pronounced 'adoray' the 'r' is silent. Hey, it's French. They're fond of knocking off the last eight letters. Similarly, 'aimer' is pronounced 'ehmay'. That 'em' is like in 'gem'. 'Amour' is pronounced...well, you've probably heard how it's pronouced.

AN 3: 'Tu adores' is pronounced 'tyu adore' the 's' is silent. Wha'd I tell ya? They don't like using the last few letters!

AN 4: Sora being the total sap that he is, we all know that Roxas can be romantic. He's the smooth, romantic side of Sora's heart.

Cliffhanger, mwahahahahahahahahahahahachokehackwheezedeepbreathhahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I feel evil. Yes, sorry. But hey, fluff! Wooh! And the whole philosophy of love is my personal philosophy of love...although it may change when (or if) I get a boyfriend. Don't know when _that's _gonna happen.

Sorry it's a bit later than I had intended. But I've been super busy this week with school and getting my Larxene cosplay ready for JAMPcon. (Ran out of time for Kairi) All except for my hair it worked pretty nicely. Especially considering I threw it together in about three days.

Reviews are nice. I'll send you some of the Pocky I bought at the convention today! (Pocky is better than cookies!)

* * *


	9. The Aftermath: Interlude

**A/N: Chapitre 8! This one is kind of an interlude. It bridges the gap between sections one and two, and serves as the transition from the Roxas-centric portion, to the Namine-centric portion. Although, towards the very end, the focus sort of balances out to rest on the both of them. No AN's inserted in the middle of this one. Not really anything I needed to point out. **

**rEvIeWeR sHoUt OuTs! (because I don't always reply to you in person...)**

**Scorch406-I'm sure you would have liked a final Roxas-Marluxia showdown, but unfortunately… The first kiss coinciding with the ending of KH1 was multi-purpose. It also serves to relate the timeline of this story to the events of the games. One of your reviews has inspired me to draw a Roxas/Namine baby. One of your many reviews! **

**blackrogue123-Thanks for all your reviews and comments! "Who would have thought Roxas would be able to get her in a wedding dress so soon?" And at fourteen, and totally legally, and without getting her pregnant! Seriously, your comment totally made my day. As does every review you send me! I promise, eventually Freshmen guys grow up, get brains, and learn at least a bit about how to be romantic. Roxas just happens to be extra smooth.**

**Danni Lea- Glad you're looking forward to it! (grins evily at the thought of all my plans)**

**DPhpFOPobsessed-"Unfortunately my teachers find it entertaining to give us 4 projects at a time and watch us suffer." You don't go to my school do you? I feel your pain. On Tuesday, I have: a chemistry test (on a TON of stuff, most of which I don't get), reading and extensive notes due on The Great Gatsby for English (not that I hate reading, its just I just got the book today), Pre-calculus (advanced) homework (takes long enough as is) probably a quiz in Pre-cal (we were going to have a project due till we convinced him to change it). I can totally appreciate you even finding time to review at all. Merci mille fois! (Thanks!)**

**Specialraven-Nobodies having kids is just such a strange thought, isn't it? Or even a Nobody and a somebody? (not the nobodies' somebody, just a person with a heart…) Thanks for your review!**

**Fall Arbor-first reviewer, thank you! Windows spell-checker is for people like me who forget how to spell sometimes…I always mess up with words like 'tongue' or 'prologue' or 'rogue'**.

**Disclaimer: I don't even have a prom date.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_The Aftermath: Interlude_

"I must say I'm disappointed."

Roxas said nothing. He had never been in so much trouble. He was standing in the center of the meeting room, but currently he and Xemnas were the only two present. Xemnas paced in a circle around Roxas, who simply looked at his shoes.

"I am endeavoring to understand what would possess you to sneak out with Naminé. I would have no qualms about allowing you to escort her to Twilight Town to purchase supplies for her art, but Marluxia discovered the two of you atop Sunset Hill…_kissing_, so I suppose it is safe to say that shopping is _not_ what the two of you journeyed there to do." Xemnas's tone was that of someone who was furious but trying very hard not to show it. He always had that sort of quiet anger about him, like he was too impressive to show his frustration.

Roxas was terrified. Anyone looking at him would have assumed he was calm, but it was just a ruse. Roxas had never been more scared in his life. Being the keyblade master wouldn't get him out of trouble this time.

"I fail to understand this…infatuation of yours. I have but one question, Roxas…Why?"

Roxas felt a strange anger rise up in him at Xemnas's words. Infatuation? No. "I l-" Wait, what was he doing? "…I don't know."

Too late. Xemnas had already detected the indignation in Roxas's voice and had caught what Roxas was about to say.

Xemnas laughed cynically. "Were you…were you about to say that you _loved _her?"

Roxas said nothing. Xemnas laughed again.

"You are not capable of it."

Oh, the things Roxas wanted to say. He wanted to scream. He wanted to tell Xemnas that he was wrong, that he loved Naminé, and nothing could tell him that this feeling wasn't real.

But that would be stupid. That would be suicide. So Roxas remained silent.

"Roxas, you are not capable of loving Naminé. Naminé is not capable of loving you. Your attempt at romantic companionship is a pointless and meaningless endeavor. It needs to end."

"But,"

Roxas shut up before the Superior even told him to. But his outburst had obviously angered Xemnas, for the man was glaring at the smaller nobody's impudence.

"You _dare _defy my orders? I, who have given you a home and a position; and yet you find the audacityto disobey the few simple rules I place in order for your protection?" Xemnas was in a rage now. His angered voice swelled in volume and reverberated around the room.

Roxas flinched.

This seemed to satisfy Xemnas, for he calmed down significantly.

"Roxas…"

Ironically, the Superior now decided to attempt a 'fatherly' approach to dealing with the youngster.

"Roxas. You are young. I can understand this. Believe it or not, I too was young once."

Oh, the sarcastic comments Roxas would have _loved _to have made were he not currently dancing on eggshells.

"I understand that, being a teenager, you are in possession of raging hormones. Perhaps Naminé was simply a way of satisfying them."

Okay, awkward. Roxas might have also commented on this were he not in such a grand pickle.

"If that is the case, I might be a little more understanding."

Roxas was silent. That most certainly _wasn't _the case (although he couldn't deny that hormones came into the equation at some point), and it felt like a betrayal to Naminé to tell Xemnas otherwise. He loved her. He _knew _he loved her; there was simply no denying it. He honestly wasn't sure he would be able to convincingly lie about it if he tried.

Roxas's silence wasn't very reassuring to Xemnas.

The Superior sighed. "So be it…It doesn't matter either way. You will not be permitted to see Naminé again."

Roxas looked up, unable to keep the disappointment off of his face.

"But-"

"No buts. She is a prisoner. She is _not _the type of person you should be gallivanting all over the worlds with and-"

"I thought you said she was a _guest_ 'in whose favor the status quo was not tipped'! Or some other kind of glorified term for slave!" Roxas replied bitingly. He instantly regretted it.

"Blantant rebellion!" Xemnas glared at the younger nobody. "Such impudence _will not _be tolerated!" He sighed. "This is irrelevant. Naminé has been moved to a permanent residence at Castle Oblivion. Her abilities are going to be further studied there. I will not be telling you its location, so you will not be able to portal there to see her. And even if you manage to worm the location out of someone, it will do you no good. She will be under constant watch, so you will not be able to sneak in any visits. I have much for you to do anyway."

"But…" Roxas's question died on his lips as Xemnas looked at him.

"You will not be seeing your 'love' again."

With that, Xemnas portalled away, leaving Roxas alone in more ways than one.

XIII

"Stop crying."

Naminé flinched. Her day just kept getting worse. As soon as she and Roxas had been dragged back to the Castle That Never Was, they'd been separated, and Naminé had been ordered to pack her bags. Roxas was being court-marshaled, and now she was stuck in this strange castle in the middle of heaven-only-knows, under the care of Larxene, Axel, and worst of all, Marluxia. Not to mention the other cruel members who were also stationed here.

Larxene and Axel were currently the ones watching her. The latter was sulking in a corner while the former taunted her.

"Gah! You're such a wimp. Roxas took this way better than you. Kind of seemed like he didn't care…" Larxene smirked as Naminé looked up at her, eyes wide.

Larxene grinned evilly. "Maybe he didn't care…who can say. He's dead and gone now anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

Naminé felt her body tense up as the words reached her ears. "…Dead?" She said weakly.

Larxene smirked wider and continued casually. "Oh yes, it's quite tragic really. Seems Xemnas didn't like that kind of rebellion. From what I heard he disposed of Roxas quickly. He faded pretty fast. Organization's down to twelve now…" Larxene left off at the look of sheer horror on Naminé's face.

"Larxene, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Hm?" Larxene turned back to Axel, who was glaring at her from his corner.

She followed him out into the hallway, and Axel made sure that the door was closed before confronting her.

"What are you doing?"

Larxene was taken aback by the harshness of his tone. "What?"

Axel rolled his eyes. "Telling her Roxas is dead! Kicking her while she's down like this! You can tease her, fine, I don't care, but lying to her and telling her Roxas is dead is a bit extreme."

Larxene frowned. "I don't care. She needs to fall for Sora and she won't as long as she thinks Roxas is out there somewhere."

"There are other ways to get her to fall for Sora! We can do it without being cruel!"

"The world is cruel! If she hasn't learned that lesson already then she needs to get it through her thick skull!" Larxene hissed, her voice spitting acid. Axel glared at her.

"What's happened to you, Arlene? You were always a sadistic witch, but you were never cruel." He grabbed her arm to keep her from walking away. "What happened to the girl I fell in love with?"

Larxene wrenched her arm away from him and glared. "Love only happens in fairy tales as do happy endings. I thought you'd know that by now _Lea! _The past is gone. Our hearts are gone. Arlene and Lea are gone!... And as far as Naminé is concerned so is Roxas." And with that, Larxene turned and stormed back into Naminé's room, leaving Axel standing 'heart'broken in the hallway.

"So, Naminé," Larxene said to the crushed nobody, who looked up at her, a deadness in her once lively blue eyes.

"What?" The girl asked brokenly.

"You know, I'm sorry about Roxas and all, I really am. We're really gonna miss the little squirt." Larxene frowned in mock-sympathy.

Naminé could only glare in broken defiance.

"But there's always Sora…"

Naminé looked down again. She couldn't…could she?

Larxene could only grin.

XIII

**Some time later**

"Axel, you said you had a very important update as to the events at Castle Oblivion. What seems to be the problem?" Xemnas asked.

Roxas leaned forward; it had been months since he'd been told anything about Naminé. Apparently everyone was very keen on keeping him uninformed as to the happenings at Castle Oblivion, and he'd been worried sick for months. The fifteen-year-old boy couldn't help but scoot forward in his seat at the prospect of learning more about what had become of Naminé.

"One word. Failure."

Muttering started immediately.

"Marluxia was attempting to take over the Organization, as we feared. The problem was dealt with accordingly. However…" Here Axel paused. "Everyone…" He trailed off. "I'm all that's left. Larxene, Marluxia, Zexion, Lexeaus, Vexen…they all faded…" No one said a word. A shocked silence filled the meeting room. Sure, they had been traitors, but to hear that their numbers had been depleted so…it was…unbelievable.

"What about Naminé?" Everyone looked at Roxas. None of the remaining members could ever remember him looking so desperate. Roxas didn't care that Xemnas was giving him a warning look. He had to know she was okay.

Axel looked up at his best friend, an internal battle raging behind his green eyes. Finally, "Dead."

Roxas felt as if he had just been punched in the stomach. No…she couldn't be.

"The battle with Marluxia took a rather unpleasant turn…"

Demyx, whose chair was about level with Roxas's, looked over at his friend. "Roxas, are you okay? I mean…dude, are you breathing?" No, this couldn't be happening…it just couldn't…

"…she got in the way one too many times…got caught up in the fray…"

Demyx watched Roxas's pale face get paler…bluish pale. Demyx began to worry. "Uh, Roxas, seriously, hey, Roxas…"

"…I watched her fade…There was nothing I could do..."

……Naminé…

"Roxas!"

And that was the last thing Roxas heard before he slipped from consciousness, and from his chair…

* * *

A/N: A bit short, but it's the interlude. Next chapter will be longer. And will include fluff. RxN fluff. Which 'R'? I'm not tellin... There will be quite a bit of fluff before the story ends; RxN with 'R' for Roxas, and with 'R' for you've-probably-guessed-by-now...

I promise this ends Namixas. Remember that.

So this is what, the third chapter I've ended in a cliff-hanger?

DUDE! This time in two weeks I'll be at prom! (probably dateless...)


	10. Namine, With Extra Sauce

**_I KNOW THAT IN KH2 RIKU DOESN'T KNOW WHO NAMINE'S SOMEBODY IS!! I WILL EXPLAIN LATER!! IT WILL EVENTUALLY MAKE SENSE, I PROMISE!!_**

Okay, for the time being this will appear somewhat AU since in the beginning of KH2, Riku was asking whose nobody Namine was. However, I promise, eventually I will explain. For the time being, just, just go with me here. Kay? Namine has the ability to manipulate memories...just...remember that. Please.

Hey, does anyone know if the same guy who voiced DiZ/Ansem is the same guy who plays Count Dooku in Star Wars Ep. 2 and 3? Cuz it was just on, and it occured to me how similar they sound.

Yep. Early update. blackrogue123-these DiZ hating chapters are for you. Cuz DiZ should totally be in the bad guy catagory.

**Disclaimer: If I did, I'd be taking Roxas to prom. (drools) Or Riku...but then again Roxas is closer to my height, but Riku's my age...If I owned it, I'd be taking BOTH of them to prom!! Heck, if I owned it, I'd take Roxas, Riku, AND Sora! And Axel! I'd take the whole Organization as my entourage. 'Cept Larxene...**

**That'd be weird filling out the Out-of-School date form... Do normal school have those, or is it just mine?**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Namine, With Extra Sauce_

"…It's been nearly a year and he's only at ten percent! At this rate Sora'll be incapacitated for another decade…how many times must I tell you to make haste!"

Naminé rolled her eyes. DiZ would continue to fuss at her about Sora no matter how fast or slow she went.

"And how many times must I tell you that putting memories back together is a tricky business. Memories are what hold the heart together. If Sora doesn't have a solid foundation of memories of Kairi then his heart will reject the rest of them. The ensuing confusion would rip his heart to shreds. I have to start with his earliest memories and work from there." She explained, not even looking up from her drawing. "Taking memories apart is easy. Putting them back together takes time. Once I've got the foundation firmly reinforced, things will start going much quicker."

DiZ watched her draw silently. He could only argue so much with her; in the end she always managed to say something like that; something he did not understand enough to refute. She was getting saucier and saucier; Kairi's spunk was finally catching up with her. Diz had liked it better when she was meek and diminutive.

"What are you drawing, Naminé?" He asked, stepping closer.

Naminé didn't answer.

Diz looked over her shoulder. "Who is that?"

"…Roxas."

Diz was taken aback. "Roxas? Sora never met him. What does this have to do with Sora's memories?"

"It doesn't. It's for my own personal enjoyment." Naminé replied, still not looking up.

Diz frowned. "Naminé…Your task is to repair Sora's memory. Not to fill the world with pretty pictures. If that is a goal you want to pursue then you may pursue it _after-_"

"The better my abilities the clearer I can depict Sora's memories," at this point Naminé actually bothered to look up. "And I don't see why I can't take a break every now and then."

"Because you are a witch. Witches don't get free time." (AN 1)

Naminé raised an eyebrow and went back to her drawing. "Larxene used to call me something else that rhymed with that word. It didn't start with a 'w' though…" Naminé smirked as Diz rolled his eyes. He hated when she compared him to her former captors. "…It started with a letter a bit closer to the front of the alphabet…"

Diz frowned contemptuously. "This is beside the point. While you waste time doodling the Organization is gathering hearts. I need Sora to stop them. And obviously he cannot do that if he is _asleep!_"

Naminé rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'll have him fixed as soon as I can. But you yelling at me isn't going to help Sora remember anything. If nothing else it makes me want to work _less._" Diz frowned at the young Nobody. He hated having to argue with her. She was such a pain sometimes…He knew there was a reason he never had children. It was because he hated dealing with teenagers. Why couldn't she just be quiet…She'd been so shy and silent when he'd first come across her. Now she and Riku both were starting to talk back to him.

"Just do not forget the importance of your mission." And he portalled away.

Naminé rolled her eyes.

"You really should go faster."

Naminé slammed down her pencil. "Oh, not you too!"

Riku turned his head to peer at her through his blindfold. "I'm just worried…You _have_ been working on Sora for quite a long time for him to only be at ten percent."

"Riku, leave me alone." Naminé picked up her pencil and began sketching again. They simply didn't understand…They couldn't believe that she had made so little progress in a year…Naminé thought it was a miracle that she'd managed to fix Sora's memory that much in one year. It infuriated her that they kept nagging her. Had she not told them from the beginning that this would take a while? And had she not _tried _to tell them that maybe bringing Kairi _here _might boost Sora's recovery?

But no. Nobody listened to the witch. Not even Riku took her side anymore. She understood that he was worried about his friend…but still…was she not still his friend too?

"Why are you drawing Roxas?" Naminé jumped. She turned to see Riku standing right behind her. She had been so caught up in her art that she'd failed to notice him sneak up on her. "Because I can."

"But he's dead."

Naminé clenched her pencil tighter. "…I know that…"

"Well…why don't you draw something else for a change…I mean, I don't want to sound mean or anything," Riku began; and Naminé could have sworn she detected a hint of jealously in his voice. "But, I mean, come on. It's been like, a year. Shouldn't you just…move on?"

Naminé squeezed her pencil even tighter. "You lost Kairi to Sora years ago. Shouldn't you just move on?" She said bitingly.

Riku was silent for a moment, and Naminé knew she'd struck a nerve.

"That was low."

"And bringing up Roxas wasn't?"

Riku was silent again.

"…He's dead."

"And Kairi loves Sora."

Silence.

This was how it had been between them lately. Riku had accepted that he had lost Kairi to Sora, but he hated that even though it had been a year since Roxas's death, Naminé was still mourning losing him. Naminé knew the real reason for Riku's contempt towards Roxas. He'd lost Kairi to Sora and he hated the thought of losing her nobody to Sora's. Especially when Sora's nobody was no longer in existence.

It was ruining their friendship. At first Riku had given her her space concerning Roxas, but after all this time he was beginning to get disgruntled that she still cared. Riku's flirtation with darkness had humbled him a great deal, but he was cocky by nature, and his pride had the unfortunate side effect of turning him into a bit of a jerk when he was annoyed.

A year ago Naminé would have ignored his temper for the most part. She would have hidden behind her sketchbook and hoped he wouldn't get mad at her. But after a year of Riku's and Diz's aggravated abuse, Naminé was rather getting tired of walking on eggshells. She would talk back and argue with them if they fussed because why wasn't she done with Sora yet? Well, if they wanted her to do a decent job, then they'd just have to wait.

To a great degree Naminé _was _over Roxas. She still loved him…a part of her always would. But he was gone…and as hard as that was to except she was trying to move on. Hence her interest in Sora and Riku. Kairi had swallowed Sora's heart whole, so he of course was out of the question. Riku on the other hand…

A part of Naminé didn't want to fall in love with Riku not only because she still cared for Roxas, but because she knew Riku only liked her because she was Kairi's shadow.

But she was lonely…She wanted to believe that there was good in Riku. She'd seen it before. But he was getting so cold and so distant. A strange mixture of guilt and pride pushing him away from her. She'd tried to get him to go see Kairi…maybe that would make him feel better. But Riku couldn't bring himself to face his old friends.

And for some reason that just attracted her to him.

Valentine's Day was approaching. And for some reason Naminé couldn't help but hope that Riku might make something of the holiday…

XIII

"Riku, I can't draw when you _hover _like that." (AN 2)

Riku took a step back. "Sorry. I just have to be close up to be able to really see." Naminé smiled apologetically. She had the tendency to forget that while Riku's blindfold didn't completely blind him, it did make it much more difficult for him to see.

"I'll show you when I'm finished," she told him.

"What's it of?" Riku asked, sitting down at the other end of her long white table. He spent most of his time in here with her, or in the large white room in which Sora was kept. Naminé had told him that Sora might be able to hear him, and that Riku's words might aid his friend's recovery. He was mostly silent, just watching her, but occasionally he would try to get her to talk.

Naminé hesitated. "When Sora was seven Kairi kissed him on the cheek and it was the highlight of his year. I'm drawing that moment. You might remember it…you were there…"

"Hn." Naminé sighed. She knew Riku would be disgruntled by something like that. Like he needed any more reminders of Sora and Kairi's infatuation; or to remember such a moment. Naminé resolved to draw him something later. Maybe she'd plant a memory of Kairi kissing Riku; just to make him feel better. Then again, she may not have to. The redhead may have given Riku a kiss at some point in time.

"Valentine's Day is coming up…" Naminé commented casually.

"Hn." Riku grunted.

Usually Riku had to pry words out of her. For once Naminé wanted to pry a response out of Riku.

"Maybe you should go see Kairi." That was by no means what Naminé wanted Riku to do on Valentine's Day; she wanted him to spend it with her. But for some reason she'd said it.

"I'm not the one she wants to see."

_Well, duh._ Naminé thought idly. "Well, do you have any other plans for that day?"

"Why?"

"Just curious." Naminé bit her lip. _Well, Naminé, that was brilliant._

"I'd much rather spend it here with you."

Naminé was so surprised that she dropped her crayon. "…what?" Her response came out a little bit more shocked and confused than she'd have liked, but she didn't sound…happy, which she supposed was all that kept the moment from being totally awkward.

She picked up a crayon and continued her coloring. She then suddenly felt something soft and strange and foreign touch the side of her head, and it took her a moment to realize it was Riku's lips.

"See you later." He turned and left her room almost as silently as he had come.

Naminé shook her head to clear it. Riku…no. What was she thinking…he didn't…he liked Kairi. She didn't want him to like Kairi…Why?

"I'm confused." Naminé shook her head again. Now she was thinking out loud. Wonderful. But, how _did _she feel about Riku?

She loved Roxas.

But, Riku was right. Roxas was gone. As much as she hated to think that…he was gone. And…maybe Riku was right…maybe…maybe she should move on…and if Riku was interested…

Now; it had been about a year since she'd tried to turn on that womanly charm.

How did that whole flirting thing work again?

* * *

AN 1: Insert Sunny throttling DiZ here.

AN 2: "Your majesty, I can't concentrate when you _hover _like that!" From A Bug's Life

Not a whole ton going on here. But contrary to what you may think, it is not a filler. Every chapter holds a piece of the puzzle...

Once again, I promise that I eventually will make sense of Riku's current knowledge of Namine's identity. For the time being, just GO WITH IT!

Also, for clarification from 'One Short Day part 2 (?)' When using the verb love in terms of saying something like, 'I love you', the verb 'aimer' is used instead of 'adorer'. So someone would say 'Je t'aime' I don't feel like fully explaining the grammar right now. Kay? I didn't feel like doing it correctly in the story, because I didn't feel like answering all the reviews where people were confused. Neither do I currently feel like going back and changing it in the story. Nevertheless, a big thanks to FallArbor for pointing it out.

**This will end Namixas, I promise. **Leave a good review and I will try to reply with something other than simply, 'Thanks!!' I'm not uber articulate in normal conversation...Go figure.

* * *


	11. Ancient and Most Noble Art of Flirtation

**A/N: Hey, my wonderful loving fans!! Sorry this is a little late; I've tried to get up a chapter a week, but last weekend I was at my dad's, and this next chapter was saved on the laptop at Mom's house. Well, Tuesday when I got back, I had homework to do, and when I finally got a chance to post chap 10, I realized I never finished typing it. Had it written, but not typed. So, now it's typed, and I can post it. Next update may be really soon, may be really late. I can't yet say. I don't have any more chapters typed; they are all still only in my notebook. Also, Prom is TOMORROW!! (does a happy dance) So, obviously that day is out of the question. On a more serious note, my great aunt is dying, but we've been expecting it for a looooooong time, so by now we're just hoping for God to end her misery soon. What this means for MAAN, is that I don't know when next I'll update, but I promise I'll try to make it soon. Although that end of the year schoolwork rush is here, so...yah.**

**Kay, so I like Namiku. But this is supposed to be Namixas. Remember that...**

**Disclaimer: No.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_The Ancient and Most Noble Art of Flirtation_

Naminé swept the eyeshadow delicately across her eyelid, trying to create that perfect smoky eye. It was especially difficult for her, since she was so pale. But weeks of practicing with makeup stolen from Larxene to impress Sora had given her much of the knowledge of makeup techniques.

Exactly why she was bothering with makeup when Riku's blindfold would prevent him from getting a good look at her anyway; Naminé couldn't think of anything else. It is one of the first flirtation methods girls think of; if the guy is ignoring her: throw on some makeup and a low cut shirt. All Naminé had were her white dresses, so she of course went straight for the make up. (AN 1)

Hey, maybe if she got him interested, Riku would take off his blindfold. Naminé never fully understood what the big deal was anyway. Surely just showing his eyes couldn't be _that _dangerous.

Naminé heard a knock on her door. "Naminé, it's Riku."

Naminé smiled. She applied a bit of light lip gloss and grinned seductively at her reflection. "Coming," she called. Naminé sauntered over to the door to let Riku in. She smiled coyly at him as she answered the door.

Unfortunately, her only response was, "Did you give yourself a black eye?"

Naminé frowned. "It's called makeup."

"Hm."

Men.

"So, Riku," Naminé cooed, walking to her seat at the end of her white table, and making sure to put a little extra swing in her walk. She sat down and took up her sketchbook, opening it to a new page. "What brings you here today?"

Riku leaned against the wall opposite her and grunted.

Naminé blew a stray hair out of her face. What would it take to get a decent conversation out of this boy? Even Roxas, as anti-social as he was, endeavored to talk to her. Naminé rolled her eyes at Riku's unwillingness to chat.

"Why don't I draw you today?" she asked, smiling up at him.

Riku looked at her for a moment. "You don't want to draw Roxas?" he asked coldly.

Naminé swallowed hard. Don't think about him. Don't think about him. "You said I needed to move on." She worked up a smile. "I'm just trying to take your advice."

Behind his blindfold, Riku blinked. Was Naminé finally acknowledging his existence? Riku grunted and dragged a chair over beside her.

Naminé smiled and took up a pencil; drawing in silence as she waited for Riku to say something. Maybe today would be one of those days where he'd try to pry a conversation out of her. "The shops here in town are all set up for Valentine's Day. Flowers and candy and all sorts of mushy-gushy gifts everywhere you turn." He said finally.

"How sweet," Naminé replied softly.

"It's kind of disgusting, actually." Naminé smiled and rolled her eyes.

"I suppose it's a nice holiday if you've go someone to share it with," she said, leaning her head down so he wouldn't see her blushing.

"I suppose," Riku replied casually. "Although I've never understood what girls like so much about getting flowers. Sure, they're pretty and all; but they wilt pretty quickly. What a great symbol of love. 'Here's a gift that'll die in two weeks, just like our love.'"

Naminé giggled. "Personally I've never much liked flowers. But then again I've had a run-in with Marluxia the flower freak, so I'm afraid my opinion's a bit biased."

Riku smiled at her, and Naminé was sure she would melt. "I suppose you prefer chocolate?"

Naminé grinned. "What woman _doesn't_?"

Riku shook his head. "I should have known. The quiet ones are always the biggest sugar addicts. Strangely enough, I always had you pinned for the kind of girl who'd want a bouquet of red roses." (AN 2)

Naminé cringed as a shiver went down her spine. "I _loathe _red roses. I hate roses in general actually."

Riku leaned forward. "Really?" he asked, "How come?"

Naminé shivered again. "Marluxia once jammed a rose thorn about an inch into my shoulder. The gash was so bad Roxas couldn't even heal it with a cure spell; his magic wasn't strong enough. He had to let it heal on its own first before it would do any good."

Riku hummed pensively. "Sorry. That must have hurt." Naminé looked up as she noticed the hint of annoyance in Riku's voice.

"Sorry," she murmured, looking back down, "I know you don't like it when I talk about Roxas." She refused to look up from her drawing even as she felt him looking at her.

Riku was silent for a moment. "I just hate to see you so sad." When Naminé looked up again, Riku was staring at the ground. "You're always moping when you talk about Roxas…I just...prefer to see you happy." Naminé smiled. Riku wasn't used to being so open. He was squirming.

"It's just…he meant a lot to me…and I was really lonely after I lost him…I hate being lonely…"

Riku looked up at her. "You're not alone." He stated firmly. Naminé raised an eyebrow at him, and he turned away. "You're not alone. You've got me."

Naminé gave him her patented soft smile. "Of course I do."

And Riku grinned.

XIII

Valentine's Day approached.

Riku had begun spending more and more time with Naminé, and less and less time watching over his sleeping friend. They didn't exactly talk much, but Naminé and Riku were both the silent types anyway. Naminé had begun to draw Riku more and more as well. It had been days since she'd drawn Roxas. She had begun to draw him a few times, but then it would turn into Riku.

Naminé wasn't sure how she felt about that.

XIII

Valentine's Day arrived, and with it much anxiety on Naminé's part. She'd been so lonely for so long…maybe Riku would do something to make the holiday special… But so far that day Riku had shown no signs that he recognized that today was any different from any other day.

It was a bit frustrating, actually.

Naminé sat silently and sketched one of Sora's memories. It was a Valentine's Day memory from his early childhood; from the year he'd given Kairi a dandelion bouquet as a present. Can we see where Naminé's mind had been lately?

Riku had been equally silent, watching her from the other side of the table. He'd been there for at least an hour, but he'd not said a word. By this point Naminé had pretty much given up on Riku doing anything for her for Valentine's Day. She supposed she rather gotten her own hopes up thinking that silent, brooding, Riku would do something as Sora-ish as buying her something for Valentine's Day. What had she expected, exactly? She hated getting flowers, other that the few white ones that she kept in a vase on her table. Deciding it was best if she just forgot about the whole thing, Naminé immersed herself in her work.

Naminé smiled as she finished; this had to be one of her best. She rose from her seat to get some tape to hang to the drawing. She hung the sketch carefully and then stood back to survey her work.

"Does this look straight to you?" She asked.

Riku walked over to stand beside her. "As best as I can tell. Not that that's saying much." Naminé smiled and laughed. "It's really good," he told her, smiling.

Naminé beamed at him. They were silent for a few minutes as they examined Naminé's artwork. "Hey, uh, Naminé?"

"Hm?" Naminé turned from priding herself on her latest masterpiece to look at Riku, who had just pulled a heart-shaped box of chocolates from the confines of his coat. Naminé blinked. That was Riku for you. Just when she'd given up on him was when he'd do something to remind her why they were so close. "For…me…?" Riku nodded.

"Of course they're for you. Who else would they be for, Sora?" Naminé smiled. She'd gotten him to say something sarcastic. It was nice to see that the cynical, cocky little jerk side of Riku hadn't completely disappeared behind the new, silent, brooding one.

Naminé took her box of chocolates from him as if they were sacred. "Riku…_thank you…_" Naminé carefully opened the box and smiled as she looked at the selection. She grinned up at him. "Dark chocolate."

Riku smirked. "Believe it or not, I do actually pay attention to you sometimes." Naminé grinned and popped a chocolate into her mouth. Wow. Where did he get these things; heaven?

Naminé closed her eyes and let the chocolate melt on her tongue. After her chocolate had disappeared she held the box up to Riku. "This stuff is amazing. Do you want a taste?" She asked, beaming at him.

Riku smirked down at her. "I sure would." He leaned down-

And get a taste he did.

Naminé blinked and stared at Riku's blindfold. With him this close, she could see through the fabric to his closed eyes. Then it hit her. She was kissing Riku-or rather, Riku was kissing her, as she'd yet to make any move to return the affection. About the time that it occurred to Naminé that she should, maybe, you know, start kissing him back now, Riku pulled away as quickly and silently as he had leaned forward.

Naminé blinked.

Riku backed away, not looking at her. "DiZ needs me…I should go…He wanted my help with…something." Naminé said nothing as she watched Riku portal away.

Naminé groped behind her to find her chair and then collapsed into it. She was in shock. Not so much at Riku's action, but at her own reaction; or, actually, the lack thereof. When Roxas kissed her she'd felt as if her entire world was melting into a bubbling pool of chocolate ice cream-and so were her legs as it would quickly become apparent that she had better grab hold of something because her legs would surely give way at any moment. (AN 3)

But Riku…

She'd been expecting that kissing Riku would be different than kissing Roxas, and it was. Still, Riku's kiss wasn't at all what she'd expected. While Roxas made her universe spin; with Riku she felt…nothing. She'd expected to feel something different, but there again she actually expected to feel _something. _But Riku's kiss didn't make her feel anything. It had been so commonplace, so…simple and nonchalant. (AN 4)

Naminé rubbed her forehead. Maybe she didn't care for Riku after all…

She still loved Roxas.

But, no, even beyond that-It wasn't just that she loved Roxas, she just plain _didn't _love Riku. She was lonely, and wanted a friend. Not a boyfriend…although one of those would certainly be nice too; she didn't want one in Riku.

So then there was the problem of Riku being in love with her. After all of her flirtation, she couldn't just say, "Sorry Riku, I've changed my mind; I don't love you, and I just want to be friends."

He would think she'd just been leading him on. But if she didn't say something, she really would be. She couldn't do that to Riku. She didn't want to lose his friendship too.

What had she gotten herself into?

XIII

* * *

AN 1: I am not recommending that girls utilise these methods for getting a guy's attention. Nor am I recommending that guys encourage them to do so. I am mearly pointing out the superficiality even the best of us will often resort to. Keep in mind that Namine is a bit deprived when it comes to social interaction-naiveity accompanies courtship in even the wisest of people.

AN 2: I. Love. Flowers. But Chocolate is the ultimate in PWNAGE!

AN 3: Reference to my sokai oneshot "Chocolat" for Kaiora's contest. No, it isn't misspelled. The French word for chocolate is spelled without the "e". And, of course, the 't' is silent.

AN 4: Partially inspired, and very, very, vaguely referencing part of "A Ring of Endless Light" by...um...I don't remember. Madeline L'Engel, or something like that, I think.

I know, another cliffhanger. I'm evil. So, with prom being tomorrow, and half of my Art III portfolio due next Friday, and my expressive self-portrait for art II due at some point, and my chemistry test monday...I'm stressing myself out just thinking about it. I don't know when the next chapter will be up. It's written, but it needs to be typed. So, yeah. Updates may go from weekly to like, bi-weekly. Or tri-weekly. Or...something.

THANK YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE FOR THE REVIEW EXPLOSION!! YOU GUYS ROCK LIKE MY ARMS WHEN I TRY TO BENCH PRESS MORE THAN THREE POUNDS!! (seriously, um I can't even lift the bar, so I have to use the little dumbells or whatever they're called...)


	12. Namine's Day Out

**AN: Prom has not tired me out enough to keep from updating! Though it did tire me out quite a bit. Kay, so I'm EXHAUSTED! But that's because it was so much FUN! I went without a date (which was great because I could show up looking glorious and be like, "Look what you _could _have taken to prom") and without a corsage (regular bracelets bug me). It was uber magnificent. Although two other girls had dresses like mine, but theirs were blue. Mine was pink with a black lace overlay that made it look more of a mistly lavender. Theirs looked like something out of the eighties (though they both looked very pretty) mine looked like it came out of Paris, France, circa 1922. _I _looked like I jumped out of Paris circa 1922. It was GREAT!! Anyway, enough about me. On with the show.**

**This is a LONG chapter, and may seem almost fillerish, but I promise, it is important. **

**Disclaimer: (--it does the disclaiming.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Naminé's Day Out_

Naminé groaned in frustration and shuffled through the various boxes in her closet. 'Closet' was perhaps not the most accurate description of the room Naminé was ransacking. It was actually an old storage room in the basement whose doorway had been so hopelessly blocked that portalling was required to enter the room beyond. After deciding that the storage space was not worth the effort required to get there, DiZ simply built the pod room walls over the small alcove that contained the doorway in question.

Naminé hated to see such space go to waste, especially considering the lack of privacy she was given when DiZ got impatient about Sora's progress; so she moved some of her things into the forgotten room for storage. Many of them were simply interesting objects she'd found around the mansion which might otherwise have been thrown out. But while Naminé had precious few items to her name, she did own a few things which she thought might be safer down here. Many such items were possessions she'd been forced to leave behind when she'd been moved to Castle Oblivion, which she had had to sneak into the World That Never Was to retrieve out of storage there: trinkets, old sketchbooks, etc.

Naminé hadn't been able to remove the previous owner's artifacts from the room, and while she cared nothing for them, they were certainly hard to avoid breaking when she needed to navigate through the room. Finally, Naminé spotted the box she was looking for and pushed through the various random items to get to it. This box was especially important; or at least its contents were. Naminé wouldn't dare open the box down here due to the danger of dust, but she didn't need to open it to know it was the box she was looking for. She'd spent hours staring at it in earlier days; trying to decide if she dared open it.

Concluding that she was ready, Naminé didn't need to spend time staring at it. She carefully carried the box back through the cramped storage room to the small clearing by the opposite wall. She had calculated that this spot on this wall was the furthest point in the room from DiZ at any given time, meaning he would be least likely to sense it if she opened a portal down here. Although there was really nothing wrong with Naminé using the room, she wasn't sure how DiZ would react. He hated the though of either her or Riku keeping secrets from him. Naminé supposed this paranoia was the result of having all six of his apprentices turn on him.

He really needed to boost the security on that computer of his. It was _way _too easy to hack. Of course, it helped that DiZ told Riku the password. Just because she couldn't get into DiZ's memory didn't mean she couldn't pry the codes of Riku's.

Too easy.

Naminé made sure her bedroom door was locked before she dared to take her treasure from its box. "Hm." Naminé hummed pensively as she held up the box's contents. "This could problematic." She said to herself. She hadn't thought of this. Naminé sighed and started to place the item back into its box. As she did she noticed a business card taped to the inside lid of the box. Naminé carefully examined it. She immediately smiled. She knew where this was! In the shopping district, right by the fountain! Yes! And being near Valentine's Day, the shop was still boasting spectacular sales! She could afford this! Yes!

She'd fixed Sora's memory 0.6 percent more yesterday. DiZ and Riku could get along without her for a few hours.

XIII

Naminé nervously pushed open the shop door. The bell overhead dinged loudly, alerting the shop owner to her presence. The shop owner, and young woman with short, straight, blonde-brown hair smiled kindly at Naminé as she entered the store. The woman was standing at the cash register checking out another girl's purchase.

"I'll be with you in just a minute, dear," she told Naminé kindly in her London accent. She must be from another world originally, Naminé thought. Naminé nodded and scanned the shop. There were rows upon rows of dresses; the majority of them seemed to be prom dresses or bridesmaid's dresses. Closer to the front of the store were rows of white wedding dresses. In the back of the shop stood a large mirror and platform, on which a girl was modeling a possible prom dress. There were a couple of dressing rooms beside the mirror and platform, and it seemed there was at least one other girl changing in there currently, judging by the dresses hung on the racks outside the dressing rooms. (AN1)

Several other store employees were aiding the other girls in the shop. Naminé was suddenly glad that she'd come on a weekday. Girls must have been beginning to shop for their prom dresses. The shop would have been much more crowded if she'd come on a Saturday. The shop owner finished with the customer at the register and smiled at Naminé.

"Can I help you, dear?" she asked, coming around the front desk to Naminé.

"Um, yes," Naminé brought the large box in her arms over to the front desk. "I need something altered. The dress was made here, and I was wondering if you did alterations." She explained.

The woman smiled. "If it was made here I'm sure we can alter it. So, prom dress? Or perhaps a bridesmaid's dress?"

Naminé shook her head. "Wedding dress actually."

The shopkeeper raised her eyebrows. "You're a bit young to be getting married, sweetheart. You can't be a day over sixteen," she said, genuinely concerned.

Naminé smiled ruefully. "I'm not getting married. A friend of mine bought this for me about a year ago. I just want it altered so I can wear it again…It's…kind of a long story."

"Hm," The shopkeeper pursed her lips. "Let me see the dress." Naminé opened the box and allowed the store owner to dig through the tissue paper to dig out the dress.

"I don't know how much your alterations cost. I just need it let out a little, and maybe the hem let down a tad. Just, whatever you can do at the cheapest you can do it, maybe."

"Free of charge," the shopkeeper interrupted, gawking at the dress as she held it up.

"What?" Naminé asked, staring at the amazed expression on the shopkeepers' face.

The woman turned and held out a hand to the surprised nobody, beaming at her. "Anita Radcliffe. Pleased to finally meet you." (AN 2)

Naminé cautiously took Anita's hand and allowed her to shake it. "I'm Naminé." She said politely.

"Naminé!" Anita exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "I knew it started with an 'N'! I just couldn't remember exactly what it was! Nadine, Noline! But no, it's Naminé!" The woman laughed. Naminé still had no idea what was going on.

"Um, excuse me, but, I'm a little confused," she said, trying not to sound quite as bewildered as she truly was.

Anita shook her head. "I'm sorry. Getting a bit ahead of myself, aren't I? You see dear, I remember making this dress about a year ago. It was a special order and required quite a bit of designing and work and talent on my part. I'll never forget it! This young blond boy with the wildest hair I've ever set eyes on, who couldn't have even been halfway into his teens, waltzes in here with nothing but a photocopy of a sketch and a plain white sundress to give us, and an order for us to make a wedding dress out of them!" Anita laughed. "I'd never had such an odd order before! It took us quite a while to finish the dress, but when we did, oh, how excited that boy was! I'll never forget that! How sweet it was for him to do something like that! Dear, for you, for this dress, I'll gladly alter it free of charge. Just go try it on, and we'll pin if for you. Penny or Rose will assist you…" (AN 3)

XIII

Naminé groaned as she attempted to get her dress on. She hadn't been aware till this moment just how much she'd grown. Length-wise, the dress was more or less fine. Her hips and up, however was another story. When did she acquire curves? She couldn't get the zipper up. Naminé stared at herself in the mirror. She had a figure. Like, a curvy one. When did this happen?

"If you're having some difficulty getting it on, dear, don't worry about it. That's what we're here to fix, remember."

"Okay!" Naminé called. She was about to step out when she heard a strangely familiar voice.

"I don't know about this one. I like the shape, but the color looks terrible on me. I think I'll try on the first one again." Naminé stopped. She knew that voice…but, from where?

Naminé tried to hurry out of the dressing room to see the person to whom the voice belonged, but whoever she was had already vanished back into her dressing room by the time Naminé had managed to get her dress out of her dressing room. Since she had been unable to zip the dress up, she had to hold it up or else the whole thing threatened to fall off.

Anita and her assistants, Penny and Rose, rushed to Naminé's aid. They ushered her in front of the mirror and onto the stool. Anita examined the dress. "Hm. This will need quite a bit of altering but it's a good thing I made it easy to alter. You've got somewhat of a corset effect in the back, so that will be as simple as adding a bit more fabric underneath. The skirt is pulling a bit at the hips, but actually when I fix the back of the bodice, it will loosen up the hip area too. The hem is incredibly simple. You've got a lace hem coming out from beneath the dress, so fixing that just means taking the lace beneath off and sewing it on again lower." Naminé balked.

"It's that simple?" she asked in amazement.

Anita nodded. "Since you weren't available when we were designing and making the dress, I had to design it to be easily altered in case it didn't quite fit you. And as much as your friend paid for this dress, and as much work as we put in it, I wanted to make sure it fit perfectly." Anita had been pinning as she talked, and when she finished, the dress fit perfectly around Naminé's hips and waist. Anita smiled at Naminé's dazed expression. "Like I said, easy to alter. We're not very busy today, and this would only take a couple of hours to sew; if you want to just hang around here for a while I can fix this up for you today."

Naminé smiled back. "Thank you. This is so kind of you."

"Naminé?" Naminé tuned to see who had called her name. She was surprised at the familiar face looking at her from the doorway of one of the dressing rooms.

"Olette!" Naminé exclaimed, remembering her old friend (one of the few she possessed.) Olette appeared to be in the midst of prom dress shopping, as she was currently wearing a beautiful bright-orange dress. Olette managed to stumble through the folds of her dress over to give Naminé a hug. "Hi!" she chirped enthusiastically. "How are you?"

Naminé smiled. "Okay, I guess. You?"

Olette grinned. "Great!" She took a step back to examine Naminé's dress. "Wow…that looks like a wedding dress or something!" she exclaimed, gaping at it.

Naminé's smiled faded slightly, but she kept her tone happy. "It is…It's the one Roxas bought me a year ago."

Olette's eyes lit up. "I remember you telling me about it! This is it!"

Naminé beamed. "Yup. I'm getting it altered since it doesn't quite fit anymore. I take it you're prom dress shopping?" Naminé stepped down from t the platform to let Olette take her place.

Olette nodded and examined her appearance. "Even though prom isn't until April, I figured I'd better get started early if I wanted to get a good dress at a reasonable price."

"And that's good logic, too!" Anita exclaimed as she looked at Olette's dress. "Prices go up the closer it gets to prom season. It's the manufacturer's way of taking advantage of the procrastinators. Well, dear, I think this dress is the one. It's the first you tried on, isn't it?" Olette nodded. She indeed looked stunning. Her bright-orange dress was made of a slightly iridescent material that seemed to change color slightly as the fabric moved. The halter-top V-neck was lined in gold beading that continued past the neckline halfway down the length of the dress. "I say, if you can pull of that bright orange color, because so few people can, then you should go with it. It's somewhat simple, but elegant. And it's slim fitting, with just that fountain of fabric at the bottom, so it isn't too much." Anita explained. (AN 4)

"And it doesn't look like you'll have to have it altered any either. It looks like it was made for you!" Naminé said as she watched her friend twirl. "Your date's a lucky guy."

Olette laughed. "I doubt Hayner will even notice what I'm wearing. He'll be too busy complaining about me dragging him along as my date and refusing to dance with me." She sighed dreamily. "I wish I had a guy like Roxas. Someone who would do something as incredibly romantic as buy me a wedding dress…" (AN 5)

"…yeah…" Naminé fell silent. Anita ushered the two girls back into their dressing rooms so that she could ring up Olette's dress and then work on altering Naminé's while she accompanied Olette to the shop down the street to buy jewelry and shoes to go with her dress.

They managed to avoid the subject of Roxas until they had arrived at the second store and Olette had begun trying to find earrings. "So how is Roxas?" She asked casually, "Are you still seeing him?"

Naminé debated answering truthfully. "…No…" she said finally. "…He…he died."

Olette dropped the pair of chandelier earrings she'd been holding and rounded on Naminé. "What? When? What happened? Oh, you poor thing!" she exclaimed breathlessly.

Naminé sighed. "I don't know exactly what happened…no one ever told me exactly how…it happened about a year ago. Not long after we met you, actually."

"A year ago?" Olette sounded downright confused.

Naminé looked up at the bewildered expression on Olette's face. "Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

Naminé knitted her brows. "Yeah, why?" she said slowly.

Olette frowned. "Because I've seen Roxas around town." Naminé felt like she'd just been punched in the gut. Could that be true? "I've never spoken to him, but I've seen him. He's always wearing this long black coat, and he's usually with this other guy in a black coat, who has really spiky red hair."

"Axel…" Naminé gasped. Black coat…the Organization's uniform…and almost always with Axel…

She turned and grasped Olette's shoulders. "Are you sure…are you certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Roxas you saw? Not just someone who looked like him? And the black coat, you're sure about the black coat? And the red-haired man?" Olette was taken aback by Naminé's sudden frantic behavior.

"Yeah," she said, "I've seen him by the station several times. He usually seems pretty busy, so I've never tried to talk to him, but I'm sure it's him. No one else has hair like that."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Naminé pleaded desperate to know if Roxas could possibly still be alive.

"About a week or two ago. He was alone, and I tried to say hi to him, but he kinda freaked when he saw me and ran off. I tried to follow him because I was worried that something was wrong, but it was like he'd dropped off the face of the earth. He was carrying this weird sword thing, too. It was shaped like a giant key or something.

"The keyblade…" Naminé whispered. She released Olette's shoulders and looked at the ground. Could it be…could Roxas truly be alive?

"Naminé?" Olette asked softly, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Who told you Roxas was dead? Maybe you had faulty information."

Naminé's head snapped up. Larxene had been the one who'd told her Roxas was dead. And everyone at Castle Oblivion had enforced that fact…except Axel. He'd never confirmed or denied the information. Come to think of it, for being Roxas's best friend, he'd never seemed particularly affected by Roxas's supposed death. He'd simply encouraged her to tell Sora the truth…Then it hit her. Of course Axel wouldn't care if they had control of Sora. He knew that Roxas was still an option. And of course Marluxia would have wanted her to think that Sora was the only one left to save her. He wouldn't have been able to get her to warp Sora's memories if she'd had hope that Roxas might try to save her. Naminé buried her head in her hands.

Roxas was alive.

Roxas was _alive._

_Maybe we could be together again._

Maybe there was hope for speeding up Sora's recovery. If he and Roxas were to meet…

But what would become of her if Roxas were to rejoin Sora? Would his love for her turn into love for Kairi?

Did he even still care?

Too much to think about.

But he was _alive._ Roxas was alive! Despite her joy, Naminé found herself sobbing. This was too much to take in. She'd spent so long mourning him. She'd spent so long alone. Did he know that she was alright? As far as she knew, the Organization supposed her dead. Did that include Roxas too? Had he, like her, moved on? But then, had she really moved on?

Naminé was beyond overwhelmed.

Distantly she could hear Olette's attempts to comfort her. But right then all Naminé needed was a shoulder to cry on while she attempted to sort out the convoluted mess that was once again quickly becoming her life.

XIII

"So, you think you still love Roxas, but you thought you might love Riku, have since decided that you don't love Riku, who still thinks that you love him, and he loves you, and you have no idea if Roxas still cares for you, since until today you thought he was dead." Olette finished, looking confused.

Naminé nodded. "Yup."

The two girls were still sitting in the accessory shop, having spent the majority of their time there processing Naminé's personal life. Naminé had left out the majority of the details, since the no-heart, memory witch, keyblade, darkness hooblah was a little bit more than Naminé could explain. Luckily, Olette was understanding about Naminé's need to keep secrets.

"Well," Olette began, "It sounds to me like you love Roxas. So, where does the conflict come in?"

"How do I break it to Riku that I don't care for him? I've been flirting with him, and now I have to break his heart. I can't stand jerking him around like that, but…I don't know."

Olette shrugged. "I don't know either. The best advice I can think to give you is simply to tell him the truth. Maybe you can work it out. If all else fails, just listen to your heart."

Naminé didn't bother telling her that she didn't have one.

Naminé sighed. Olette gave her an apologetic smile. "Hey, I may not be great at giving advice but I do know how we can get your mind off of this for a little while."

"What?" Naminé asked, eager for a way to get cheered up.

Olette grinned. "Shop therapy!"

* * *

AN 1: The layout of the store is based on the one where I purchased my prom dress.

AN 2: Anita isn't an OC. She's a Disney charecter. Anita Radcliffe, from 101 Dalmations. In the live-action version, Anita was a fashion designer who worked for Cruella DeVille. I decided to throw her in here as the dress shop owner. Hey, if Pongo and Perdy could end up in Traverse Town, who's to say that Anita and Roger couldn't have moved the family to Twilight Town.

AN 3: Penny and Rose are named after Penny Rose, the costume designer for Pirates of the Carribean.

AN 4: Olette's dress is based on one that I tried on whilst prom dress shopping. I thought it would fit her perfectly.

AN 5: Okay, so typically, only Juniors and Seniors get to go to prom (unless invited by an upperclassmen) Let's pretend that Olette and Hayner's school allows them to go to Prom okay? Some schools do that, I think.

I wrote this chapter a few days after I bought my prom dress, so you can see where my mind was at the time. How appropriate that it gets posted the day after prom? Okay, so guys probably found this chapter a little dull, but next chapter is going to be important. I think this is the last chapter that I already had written, so I'm going to have to get cracking. We're nearing the end...I think. Maybe not. I've got everything planned out, and the plotbunnies have started breeding on these last few chapters. Updates may slow down a bit, because I have alot going on right now. End of the year rush, you know. On a sad note, my great aunt died yesterday. Of course, I was willing to bet every cent to my name that she would die on Prom day. That's just my luck. But she's been in bad shape for a long time so it's kind of a good thing; she's not in pain anymore.

Reviews are nice. Critique, praise, flames, POINT OUT TYPOS, I'll take it all. Although flames are a waste of cyberspace.


	13. Catalyst:Interlude

**A/N: Hugely important chapter right here. We're nearing a reunion...Anyway...I don't know when the next chapter will be up. I'm still uber busy, but I'll try for within the next two weeks or so. WARNING: MAJOR ANGST AHEAD. I got depressed just writing this chapter. Have something fluffy lined up to read after this or something. You'll need it. This is an Interlude chapter because the focus is beginning to split. It's still mainly on Namine but...well...you'll see. I'd say enjoy, but it's really angsty...not my best work perhaps...I plead stress.**

**Disclaimer: this is me, not owning.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Catalyst: Interlude_

"_And though I know the world of real emotion has surrounded me, I won't give in to it," _Naminé's light soprano carried the lyrics through the woods as she pushed open the gates to the mansion, a feat that cannot properly be appreciated if it is neglected to mention that she did so while juggling the box containing her wedding dress, along with several other large shopping bags (Olette was a guru when it came to bargain hunting) and her blue ipod (Riku's present to her for her 'birthday'. DiZ hadn't been quite sure how to respond when they'd asked to install iTunes on his supercomputer). She was caught up in the motion of the music, scarcely aware of what she was doing; belting the song at the top of her non-existent lungs as she made her way towards the mansion's door. She had decided to walk home rather than portal, since she didn't get out much as it was. "_And now, I know that forward is the only way my heart can go. I hear your voice calling out to me, 'You'll never be alone.' _" Naminé pushed open the heavy front door, still not paying attention, still singing as she entered the hall. "_What can I do for you? What-_" (AN 1)

"Well you can start by not sneaking out, for one thing!" Naminé gasped and promptly pressed pause on her ipod, plummeting back to reality in the process. Diz, looking disgruntled, and Riku were standing before her. Naminé at first felt fear at being discovered, followed by justified indignation. And why shouldn't she go out?

"I didn't sneak out," she stated, firmly yet quietly.

Diz's eyes narrowed. "You were not given permission to leave. That constitutes sneaking out."

Naminé glared. "Who says I need permission? You're not the boss of me."

Diz laughed cruelly. "You think so? I provide you with a place to live and work. I have assisted you in Sora's recovery-"

It was Naminé's turn to laugh. "No you haven't!" she spat out, fury swelling up within her. "If anything you've made it more difficult! Fixing Sora's memory used to feel like a duty, now it's just a painful chore! And with you hanging over my shoulder, I can't concentrate, and I've' been making more mistakes! And _that _means it takes even longer because I have to go back and fix them!" Diz frowned at the insolent youngster. Heaven help Kairi's parents! "If you wanted to actually _help,_" Naminé continued, glaring, "You could do any number of the things I've suggested. Like bringing Kairi here, for example! The physical proximity of her heart to Sora's would do wonders for them both!"

"This is irrelevant to your sneaking out." Diz stated, trying to hide both his frustration, and his inability to respond to Naminé's accusation. "You have work to do. You can't go running off like this!"

Naminé glared. "I'll do what I want when I want. You can throw me out if you want to, but you'll have to throw Sora out with me. I might as well take him back to the Organization." Diz and Riku both turned to stare at her in horrified incredulity. Naminé smirked cynically. "What? I've been with the bad guys and the good guys, and as far as I can tell there isn't much difference."

"You'll do no such thing!" Diz commanded. "You're getting out of control! This rebellious behavior must stop! If you want to keep what few privileges I will allow you after this escapade, I would suggest you begin acting in a bit more submissive manner!"

Riku began to be afraid. Naminé was looking angrier than he'd ever seen her. Her normally placid face was contorted with anger. "No!" She yelled. "I'll do what I want, when I want! And who exactly is going to stop me? I'm too valuable to you, admit it! I'm not as oblivious as you think," she paused and smirked, "_Ansem._"

The orange eye widening was all it took to assure Naminé of her current domination. "Or did you think I didn't know that either?"

Riku had turned to stare, slack jawed, at Diz, who was staring at Naminé for the first time with fear in his heart. What _else _did the child know? "What?"

"I'll wipe it from his memory later, maybe," Naminé said nonchalantly, gesturing at Riku.

"_You _are a heartless witch. Your primary duty is to fix the catastrophe you have caused. I will not permit you to waste time." Diz stated, his voice shaking slightly.

Naminé glared up at him. "I'd love to see you try."

"Naminé, stop it!" Naminé and Diz turned to Riku, who until then had remained mostly silent.

"What?" she asked, softly; breathlessly.

"Naminé, he's right," Riku said firmly. "Your job is to fix Sora. You shouldn't be running off like this."

The blonde stared. Was he really doing this? "I wasn't running off! I was going out! You know, something normal teenagers get to do!"

Riku frowned. "You're not a normal teenager."

Naminé's eyes stung with the hot angry tears quickly welling up. "All the more reason I should get to try to be normal every once in a while!" The molten salt streamed down her face. "You didn't seem to care much about my abnormality the other day!"

Riku looked away. "That's not the point. Listen to Diz…you're supposed to stay here…"

Naminé glared. "I hate you." Riku turned to look at her, his slight frown indicative of the furrowed brows hidden by the blindfold. Naminé turned to Diz. "One: I'll do what I want and you can't stop me. Two: as soon as I get Sora finished, I'm going to introduce you to him. That way, I can wipe your memory clean. And I mean completely clean. Every precious memory gone." She turned back to Riku. "Do you remember the first time you met Kairi?" Riku suddenly frowned, and Naminé grinned maliciously. "That's right. You don't. And you never will again."

She gathered up her bags and headed up the stairs to her room, wiping Riku's memory of her mention of Ansem as she went.

XIII

_Meanwhile_

"Hey, Axel, where's Roxas?" Axel paused in the hallway to let Xigbar catch up with him.

"Dude, I don't know _what _that kid does anymore."

The tragedy of the truth in that statement was too overwhelming to think about. Perhaps telling Roxas that Naminé was dead wasn't for the best after all. Since hearing the news Roxas had changed dramatically. For weeks he'd been completely silent; following orders without so much as a word. Whenever anyone tried to talk to him, he'd shrug it off and walk away. There had been no consoling him, no helping him.

Once the moping had ended the trouble had started. Roxas was getting older and more defiant. The rebellious teenage attitude Xemnas had thought was absent in Roxas had started up in full force. He would argue about the missions he was sent on. He would leave sporadically. There would be hours some nights where no one knew where he was. Finally they'd managed to worm it out of him that he'd been in Twilight Town a lot. Axel had tried taking him to some of the parties in Twilight Town after Naminé 'died' to get his mind off of everything, and it had backfired magnificently. The kid knew more about the underground party scene in that town than Vexen knew about chemistry.

"He with some girl?"

"Probably."

"…How far is he going with these girls?"

"It's Roxas. He's rebellious but he's not stupid."

Since losing Naminé, Roxas had come to bury his troubles in the cherry red lips of whatever beautiful airhead would have him. Naminé had always made him feel real; made him feel alive. That was what he'd been looking for whenever he obliged whatever tramp had been flirting with him at a party; to feel alive. It didn't take long for him to realize what a flawed plan it was, but he kept trying anyway. He'd almost started to delight in breaking their hearts after having given them a couple dances and kisses, then disappearing into the crowd and out of their lives, not even capable of remembering their names by the time he got back to the castle. Xemnas was well aware of Roxas's frequent outings, but the child had to be kept content enough not to leave the Organization, so the boy was left well enough alone. As long as Roxas wasn't getting drunk, getting high, or getting laid, Xemnas really didn't care what he was up to. They had plenty of other problems with Roxas to deal with otherwise. (AN 2)

It was a little past midnight when Axel finally found Roxas, who was just returning. Axel raised an eyebrow as he watched Roxas wipe a smudge of red lipstick away from his ear. "There you are." He greeted, trying to smile.

Roxas merely grunted. "So do you know this one's name?"

"Lindi." (AN 3)

"You've seen her before."

"She's actually somewhat intelligent. And a really good kisser. She's been on a mission to get me to come home with her for a while now. The more I tell her I'm not interested the harder she tries. She's a bit odd actually. But what can I say? She puts up with me." Axel couldn't help but feel sad at how un-Roxas all of this was.

"This isn't like you."

"What isn't?"

Axel put a hand on the young nobody's shoulder. "All of this. Everything you've been doing for the past couple of months. It isn't like you. What would Naminé say if she knew what you were doing?" Roxas stopped and spun on his heel, glaring up at Axel.

"Don't _ever _mention her like that!" he growled.

Axel's eyes narrowed. "She'd hate what you're doing. She'd say it wasn't like you either."

"Shut up."

"I'm sure she'd want you to move on, but you casually dating all of these girls isn't what she would have wanted!"

"I said _shut up._"

"It's not going to bring her back, you know."

"I said SHUT UP!" Roxas yelled that time, glaring sadly up at his best friend, the beginnings of tears evident in the corners of his eyes. "Just…just shut up!"

Axel simply watched him for a moment, not sure how to respond. "You know Naminé wouldn't-"

"Would you stop mentioning Naminé?" Roxas shrugged the hand off his shoulder. "I know, okay?! I know she'd hate this! I know she'd be mad! I don't know what else to do, okay!"

Axel stared. "Then let me help-"

Roxas laughed cynically. "You? Some help you were when Naminé and I were caught together! You even helped Marluxia find us!"

Axel glared. "Hey, if I'd tried to back you up I'd have gotten myself killed! And I didn't rat you out! No one knew where you were! It was by chance that Marluxia and I ended up looking for you together!" (AN 4)

"Sure you did," the younger said sarcastically.

"Roxas…" Axel shook his head. "This is ridiculous. Naminé wouldn't want you falling apart like this; you need to-"

"Stop mentioning Naminé!" Roxas yelled again, this time in strangled desperation rather than frustration. "Just stop…" Roxas leaned against the wall, then slid down it to rest on the floor as he completely broke down. "…I still miss her…" he wiped desperately at his eyes, trying to uphold his last façade of strength. "I miss her so much…" Axel was at a loss. This outpouring of emotion…maybe Roxas really did have a heart.

He sat down beside Roxas and placed a hand on his shoulder. Roxas turned his tearstained face up to stare brokenly at Axel. "I'm sure she also would have given you another chance."

And for ever so brief a moment the real Roxas, the one they had all come to love and tolerate, smiled.

XIII

Riku took a deep breath and knocked on Naminé's door.

Silence.

He knocked again.

"What?" _Harsh; I'm in trouble._

Riku opened the door and was blown away. Even with his blindfold he could tell that Naminé was standing before him in a…well…a wedding dress. She looked incredible. She was only fifteen, right? Well, physically fifteen; that's how old Kairi would be. Right? Yeah, because he, Riku would be sixteen and Sora and Kairi were a year younger so she would be technically fifteen…because boy, did she look older. For the most part Riku's view of her was through the full length mirror she was standing before.

She was looking sadly into her reflection, smoothing down the dress she'd never wear down the aisle. "Roxas gave this to me. I mentioned once that I'd probably never get to wear one…and he bought me this. He had it custom made and everything. I was getting it altered today."

Riku grunted. "That's right; you hate it when I talk about Roxas." Riku walked closer, and attempted to wrap his arms around her. "Don't you dare touch me."

Her distant attitude took him by surprise. "Why not?"

"Because you don't care a thing for me."

Riku frowned. "That's not true!"

"Then why is it you'll kiss me but you won't stand up for me?" Naminé still hadn't turned from the mirror. Her tone was calm, but there was a certain coldness pervading the atmosphere.

"Naminé…" Riku's number one mistake was playing it off as something casual by merely using that tone.

"Roxas would have stood up for me."

"And you bring up Roxas…"

Naminé turned to glare. "Yes I'm bringing up Roxas! I _know _he loved me. He would have stood up for me! In fact, when we snuck out once and then got caught, he _did _stand up for me! He _fought _for me! He attacked Marluxia for hurting me! He protected me! He cared for me! And what do you do? You try to get me to talk and get over Roxas and Sora and draw you pictures and be the girl you wish loved you instead of Sora!"

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT KAIRI!" Riku shouted.

"I don't even have to mention her name and you know what I mean! You still love her, not me!"

"That's not true!"

"Then why wouldn't you defend me?!"

Riku was silent. They stood, staring at each other, emotions running high and tempers running higher.

"I need someone who loves me enough to defend me."

"I do love you…"

"You love Kairi."

"I love _you._"

"I love Roxas."

XIII

AN 1: "Real Emotion" As has been stuck in my head since coming across the FMV for the intro of Final Fantasy X-2.

AN 2: You have no idea how much revision this section has been under. The whole scenario wasn't in my original plot. I thought of it a while back, and have debated to what degree I would include it. I've considered throwing it out completely; I've considered majorly playing it up and giving a major dark twist to the story by making Roxas a total playboy and then including a scenario in which he actually has to admit this to Namine, and her reaction to him being so ridiculously unlike himself. In the end, I went with something somewhere in the middle. The overall plot won't change dramatically from this. All that really changes is that next chapter(more likely the chapter after that) will have some more material than I originally planned.

AN 3: Lindi may very well show up soon. She would have had a much larger role in the darker version of this scenario. In case she doesn't show up, picture a super skinny girl with a fake tan, a lot of make up that is totally uneeded, because she'd probably be much prettier if she took it off, with wavy-ish hair that is pretty long, side swept bangs, bleach blonde hair with dark brown roots clearly visible, brown eyes, and who, for all her obvious fakeness in appearence, has a smile that seems to communicate she's got some depth to her. By the way, I haven't the slightest clue where her name comes from. I just thought of it, and it seemed to fit. Think Linda except ending in that 'eee' sound.

AN 4: See, Axel didn't rat Rox and Nam out. He didn't know. Some of you had mentioned it in your reviews, so now you know.

Well, hope y'all enjoyed the angst as much as angst can be enjoyed. Lovin' the support! Drop a review, and I'll try and get back to you, but if I don't I eventually will most likely. I'm forcing myself on a bit of hiatus during the school week and during the next couple of days so I can force myself to get school work done. I've got a major paper due tuesday, and my art porfolio is nowhere near as done as it needs to be this point. 5 concentration and 4 breadth, and still no artist statement...phew...I've got a lot to do. That's two more for my concentration and three more bredth. Getting add. I'm sleepy. We did Field Day today for some of the intercity elementary schools, and those little kids wore me out! It was a blast, but seriously, they've got more energy than we do!


	14. Close Encounters

**AN: I have a cold. In all likelyhood, even though I am typing this a couple of days before I intend to post it, I will still have a cold when I post this chapter (and here I am a few days later, still sick) . Nevertheless, know that this chapter was written while in a feverish delerium and/or under the influence of cold medicine. Writing style is all over the place. The story line is getting a bit darker, and we're nearing the end (a couple more chapters, at most) . Let me take this time to say thanks to all of my wonderful readers and reviewers!! Thanks to all of you who have bugged me for updates, encouraged, critiqued, said hi, or rambled aimlessly. I wouldn't have to motivation to keep this going if it weren't for y'all!**

**Disclaimer: see the last thirteen chapters.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Close Encounters_

"…there's no denying it, his behavior is becoming problematic."

"He's starting to ask questions. He wants to know."

"I assume these questions are not being answered?"

"Naturally. But still, the point is, he's asking. We can't keep dodging his inquiries forever. He'll find out one way or another. Even if it means leaving the Organization."

"He wouldn't do that, would he? I mean, this is home for him!"

"The secrecy means that it's starting to feel less like home, Demyx. We've all noticed how he's changed. He's long since realized that we know more about him than we've let on."

"He knows how important he is."

Mutters broke out around the room.

"How much so?"

"The kid isn't stupid. He knows that he's indispensable. He knows that the keyblade releases hearts, and he knows that those hearts are what we've been using to build Kingdom Hearts. He knows how important he is, and that's why he hasn't worried about getting in trouble. He knows he's too valuable to us."

"…I suppose…this is a problem…We still cannot tell him. If he knew…"

"I think he already knows."

"It doesn't matter. We don't know Sora's whereabouts."

"It might be simple for Roxas to find him, though. After all, they are the same person."

"Keep him busy with work and perhaps he won't question it. In the meantime I will try to devise something to keep him busy. Some lie that will overturn his curiosity…Naminé would be so useful in this situation."

"I think she has something to do with this."

"She's dead. How do you mean?"

"He's not over her. Strangely enough, I think he's still mourning her."

"He hasn't the heart for it. How can he still miss her when he hasn't the capability to love her to begin with?"

"They both had somebodies who were and are still in existence…Maybe it had something to do with that."

Xemnas considered the possibility. "I suppose. That was what worried me most when he was seeing her. She knew too much, and if she were to divulge what she knew to Roxas…Their relationship could have had catastrophic repercussions for our mission."

"And Roxas's current activities won't?"

Xemnas laughed. "Roxas's current behavior is the result of teenage hormones and too little social interaction. If it satisfies his rebellious spirit without damaging the Organization's goals, then all is well. His relationship with Naminé was dangerous because it encouraged him to question what we had told him. He thought he could love her-after all we'd told him about nobodies being unable to love. Their connection to Sora and Kairi was simply too dangerous. What might we have done if Naminé might have somehow managed to put Roxas's soul in contact with Sora? All around a dangerous situation. It couldn't continue."

"And Roxas's current behavior?"

"Let him continue. It only drives him further into darkness. His 'feeling' of guilt is enough to push him further into confusion. The more confused he becomes, the more he will be driven towards the only stability he can find-that which the Organization offers." (AN 1)

XIII

Naminé stared at her reflection in the mirror. It had been a few days since her row with Riku and DiZ, and since then, she'd spoken not a word to either of them. She'd gone about her work diligently, ignoring every word that escaped from the lips of either Riku or Diz. Just to spite them, she would visibly slow down her work whenever Diz or Riku dared to tell her to hurry. It frustrated them to no end.

Sora was making more progress than Diz's computer was capable of measuring. In the grand scheme of things it didn't appear that she'd made much progress, but that was because the computer measured in terms of how many memories had been repaired over memories affected in total. It didn't take into account the importance of the individual memories, or the time it would take to restore each memory. In reality, Sora was almost done. The memories of the last two years made up the majority of the memories that needed to be restored (hence DiZ's computer saying that so much was left to be done) but they wouldn't take long at all to restore.

Naminé sighed. Her mind lately had not left Roxas. It was hard to believe that he might really be alive. It was…unbelievable. She couldn't wrap her mind around it.

"_Parties at the underground concourse are getting really popular. You should check them out sometimes. You never know. Maybe you'll see Roxas there sometime. A lot of people show up at those parties." _

Naminé contemplated Olette's words. Sure, Olette had warned that the parties in question could occasionally get a little…sketchy, but if there was a chance she'd see Roxas…Olette had said the parties usually happened every Saturday night after midnight. At that time, townspeople preferred to use other modes of transportation to get from place to place, so it was guaranteed that the underground would be empty of non-partygoers.

What did she have to lose? The worst that could happen was that Diz would get ticked off again. Naminé smiled. She rather liked the idea of making DiZ mad. If he thought he could control her, he'd have to put up with her malicious annoyances.

XIII

Naminé pushed her way through the crowd of people. She was beginning to wish she hadn't decided to attend this… 'party'. It was more of a rave, actually. Naminé was quickly discovering that she was _not _a party person. Lights in the underground had been dimmed significantly; it was a bit surreal to discover a place in Twilight Town that was actually dark. Colored LED lights lit the corridors and music blasted throughout the tunnels. It made Naminé wonder how anyone who lived above didn't hear it. People who she'd never before seen around town were now packed into the concourse, and the claustrophobia of it all was beginning to annoy.

Naminé was getting slightly annoyed by the looks boys were giving her. Sure, at first it was kind of nice to realize that she was attractive enough for boys to check her out, but after a while it began to make her feel uncomfortable. "I'm _not _here for _you _to _look at_!!" She wanted to yell; not that they'd have heard her over the blasting music. Naminé had long since given up on seeing Roxas. There were too many people for her to see the walls around her.

Naminé sighed and turned to try to find her way out of the packed arena of dancing teens. Suddenly, as she approached a wall (_finally_, she thought, _something I can use as a guide!_) she was frozen in her tracks. Through the dancing teens around her she could she him.

But he wasn't alone.

It broke her non-existent heart to see Roxas, pinned as he was to the wall by some anorexic-looking girl with long, wavy hair that was definitely _not _naturally blonde (like Naminé's _naturally _beautiful blonde locks). The girl's dark chocolate roots were blatantly obvious, but they only seemed to fit with her overall skanky appearance. The girl's clothing (or lack thereof) consisted of a magenta spaghetti-strap belly shirt and a mini-skirt which Naminé assumed was actually a navy scarf wrapped around her hips masquerading as an bona fide piece of clothing, completed with tall, knee height navy boots with heels that looked nigh impossible to walk in. Naminé felt anger welling up within her tiny form. Who did this…this _tramp _think she was?! Pinning Roxas to the wall, mashing those full red lips to his?! It made Naminé sick to watch Roxas's hands gripping the girl's eating-disorder-skinny hips. Even the unnatural lights of the concourse couldn't hide the fakeness of the girl's tan. What was Roxas thinking?!

Naminé should have been happy to see Roxas alive. She should have been thrilled. She should have wanted to run to him, throw her slender arms around him and press her pale lips to his. But someone was already in that position. Her anger overwhelmed her happiness at seeing him alive.

Suddenly Roxas broke off the kiss with the blonde girl, and for a moment his and Naminé's eyes met. Naminé glared as Roxas's blue eyes widened with horror at the sight of her. And then the blonde girl pressed another kiss to his lips, and Roxas seemed to forget all about Naminé. His blue eyes closed and he went back to making out with the fake-blonde girl. Naminé squealed in frustration before turning and shoving her way back through the crowd. (AN 2)

-

Lindi broke away for a moment and Roxas gulped in much-needed air. His eyes strayed from her face for a moment and caught onto something he'd never expected to see. His eyes widened as they landed on a face he hadn't seen in over a year. Naminé was standing in the crowd, glaring at him. Roxas gasped, sucking in air as his head started spinning. _Naminé…_Suddenly Lindi's lips were again against his, and his eyes rolled back into their sockets as he lost himself in her passion. But even as he closed his eyes, the image of Naminé glaring at him so disapprovingly wouldn't fade from his mind. He pushed Lindi away, much more roughly than he had intended to, and looked around wildly for any sign of Naminé.

"Roxas, what the heck?" Lindi was glaring at him. "What was that for?"

Roxas was searching the crowd desperately for Naminé's face. Had he merely imagined it? "I thought I saw-" he broke off and took off through the crowd, ignoring Lindi's angered shouts. He pushed his way through the bodies, looking around for any sign of Naminé. He finally managed to push his way all the way outside of the concourse, and shielded his eyes as they re-adjusted to the fading light of the sunset.

"Roxas!" He ignored Lindi as she finally caught up with him. "Roxas! What's gotten into you?! Everything was fine, and then all of a sudden you just take off! Gosh, Roxas, what's your deal tonight?"

Roxas continued looking around; finally acknowledging that he must have imagined it. But why did his hallucination age Naminé a year? How could…

"I'm sorry…" he muttered distractedly, still trying to process what had just occurred. "I thought I saw someone I knew."

"Well, you didn't have to take off like that!" Lindi scolded, hands on her bony hips. "What's up?"

"Sorry!" Roxas said angrily, still not looking at her.

Lindi didn't take well to his sudden frustration. "No need to be mean! What did I do?!" She turned and started walking back toward the entrance to the concourse. Roxas was suddenly seized with fear of being alone.

"Lindi, wait! I'm sorry! I was just…anxious about seeing someone…I'm sorry." The girl stopped and turned. Roxas knew he had her feeling better. Lindi was as lonely and desperate for love as he was. She sighed and turned around to walk toward him. She smiled seductively as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh, Roxie, you're all tense," she murmured, drawing closer. "I can fix that," she cooed, still smiling. She leaned closer and whispered into his ear. "You know, Roxie, my brother's out of town."

"What about your parents?"

Lindi dropped her coy manner for a moment. "They're dead, remember?" she stated matter-of-factly. She quickly reapplied her seductive attitude. "Which means, dear Roxie, that it would just be you and me…"

_Disgusting little tramp!_ Naminé watched Roxas's exchange with the blonde girl, apparently named Lindi, from the shadows in between two buildings. _How _dare _she call him Roxie?! That's _my _name for him! Only _I _get to call him Roxie!!_

Roxas shoved her away. "Lindi, no! How many times do I have to tell you?"

Lindi was not deterred. "Roxie, c'mon! I know you want to…" She leaned in, attempting to kiss him. Once again Roxas pushed her away.

"Lin, really, stop it. My answer is and always will be no." Roxas tried to walk away. "I need to get home anyway."

Lindi watched with a frown on her heavily-make-up-covered face. Naminé watched with a smirk on hers. "It's okay if you're a little scared, Roxie. But I promise, I don't bite."

Roxas turned and frowned. "I'm not _scared_, Lindi. But I'm not _stupid_, either."

There was silence for a moment. Lindi glared at him through her mascara. "…Fine…I see how it is."

Roxas immediately felt regret. "Lin, that's not what I meant."

She didn't seem to care. "No, I know _exactly _what you meant. You think I'm an airhead, just like the rest of them. Fine…I don't need you. If you don't want to, it'll be easy as pie for me to find someone who will."

She turned to walk away. "And then what?" Roxas called after her. "You find someone who'll pretend to love you for one night, only to leave before you wake up tomorrow morning. Then next week you'll come running back to me because I'm the only guy who ever treats you like you're worth more than your body?" Lindi paused, but remained silent. "You're not a fool, Lindi. I know you aren't, so stop pretending that you are. You want love, but you want respect. But the way I see it, you don't care how little respect a guy has for you as long as he claims to love you!"

"Shut up!" Lindi cried, whirling on him. "You don't know me!"

Roxas glared at her. "Maybe we'd better keep it that way."

Naminé wanted to smirk. She wanted to point a finger in the fake-blonde girl's face and yell, "Ha ha!" She wanted to flaunt her victory to no end. But she couldn't. Despite herself, Naminé felt sorry for the girl. She was as broken and battered as any nobody Naminé had ever encountered, and she even had a heart. Naminé suddenly became somewhat happy that she _didn't _have a heart; she'd never have to feel the pain when it got broken.

Naminé watched Roxas walk away, turn a corner and disappear into an alley. He probably portalled from there, she thought. She turned her attention back to the girl. She was still standing there, looking at her feet. Then, she started to cry. She collapsed on the cobblestone and started to bawl, right there in the middle of the street. Naminé felt her non-existent heart go out to the girl. She wanted to help her; even though she had taken Roxas from her. But then, Roxas turned her down, didn't he? Naminé suddenly felt proud of her boy. There was some decency left in him, after all. Naminé reached down into her bag. She was certain there were some in there somewhere…

"Here, I think you need these more than I do." Lindi looked up. An extremely pale girl of about her own age was smiling down at her, holding out a packet of tissues. The girl had shoulder length, pale blonde hair that framed her pale face. She was clearly a natural blonde. Lindi felt a stab of inadequacy at her own natural hair color. Lindi smiled and took the Kleenex from the girl.

"Thanks." She choked out, blowing her nose. "Great…"she muttered, wiping at her eyes, "my make-up's ruined." Naminé smiled and sat down beside the girl, sympathy and curiosity her motivation.

"So…"Naminé began, twiddling her thumbs, "Was that blond boy your boyfriend?"

Lindi laughed ruefully. "No…if he was that would make me the most unfaithful girlfriend in the world. No…we just sort of…hook up every once in a while."

"Oh."

"By 'hook up' I don't mean-"

"No, no, I know."

"He's the nicest guy I've dated in a long time. But…he's right. Everything he said to me tonight…He's right." Naminé decided to feign ignorance rather than alerting Lindi to the fact that she'd heard the whole conversation. "Maybe…maybe I'm going about this all the wrong way…" Lindi sighed. She stood up. "I should head home…Hey, thanks."

"You're welcome." Naminé told her, smiling politely. "You can keep the tissues, by the way."

Lindi smiled. "Thanks. I'm Lindi, by the way."

Naminé nodded. "Naminé. Hey, good luck."

Lindi frowned. "With what?"

"With whatever good comes out of this."

"What makes you so sure good will come out of this?"

Naminé shrugged. "It has been my experience that life never hands you struggles without also handing you the strength you need to overcome them. So…good luck; in whatever comes your way."

Lindi smiled. "You're a nice person, Naminé." She turned to leave, and then stopped, turning back around with a confused look on her face. "Naminé? Right?" Naminé nodded. Lindi opened her mouth, paused, closed it again, and then proceeded to repeat the action a few subsequent times, each time appearing to be on the verge of asking something, and then thinking better of it, closing her mouth again. Finally, she seemed to decide against making whatever comment she'd been planning on making, and simply waved goodbye.

Naminé returned the gesture, albeit a tad bit confusedly, and turned toward the alley, where it would be dark enough to portal away unnoticed. Lindi shook her head as she walked away. Surely there was more than one Naminé in the world, right? And what would this one think if Lindi were to inform her that, according to Roxas, she was supposed to have died a year ago? (AN 3)

XIII

"A…day…off?"

"Yes."

"Like, a whole day?"

"Yes, Roxas, a whole day."

Roxas furrowed his brow and stared questioningly up at his superior. "Okay, so…what's the catch?"

"Catch?" Xemnas watched the young nobody puzzle over his offer, while he puzzled over Roxas's confusion. "I do not understand."

Roxas scratched his head. "Y'know, what do I have to do in order to get this…day off?"

Xemnas laughed. "Nothing! Number XIII, I am trying to be gracious. You should accept this reward without question!"

Roxas still didn't look convinced. "So…I really don't have to do anything to get my day off?" Xemnas shook his head. "Like, nothing? I just really, seriously get the whole day to do whatever I want, wherever I want, whenever I want? No chores, no missions, no training, no strings attached?"

Xemnas attempted a fatherly smile. The result was a bit frightening. "Of course. You are young, Roxas; I understand this. You should have some time to enjoy your youth every once in a while. You are too young to be constantly working!"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "So, you're serious? I really get the whole day to myself tomorrow? No supervision, no heartless to kill, no nothing? Just me? And no work?"

Xemnas nodded, and then proceeded to ramble about Roxas's unmatchable work ethic (which in reality was basically nonexistent, he just needed to butter the kid up), and all the reasons why Roxas deserved the day off. Roxas stared at his shoes and contemplated the offer. It simply seemed too good to be true. "…so, you see, I think it best you have a day all to yourself. I simply ask that you notify us before leaving, and that you get home early enough to get a good night's sleep. You'll have to get back to work the day after, you understand."

Roxas snapped his fingers. "Hah! I knew it! You're giving me a day off because the day after you're gonna make me work ten times as hard as normal, is that it?"

Xemnas swallowed hard. If he wasn't trying to get Roxas into a good mood he would have chastised the boy for his impudence. _Patience, Xemnas, patience. He _is _young, after all. _"Now, now, Roxas. I simply mean that you will have to get back to work. Not that your work will be anymore difficult!"

Roxas furrowed his brow and puzzled up at his Superior. "So…you're really serious? I really get this whole day off?"

"I'm serious. Unless, that is, you don't want a day off-"

"No, no! I do, it just…seems too good to be true, that's all." Roxas stared at his shoes for a minute. A whole day off…that didn't happen very often.

"Just remember to alert us before you leave, and to get home at an hour conducive for getting a good night's sleep and-" Xemnas wasn't permitted to finish his thought. Suddenly, to his surprise, the young nobody had flung his arms around the Superior's torso in a gesture so strange, and yet somewhat familiar. The boy's uttered "Thanks!" seemed congruent with this strange gesture which he was bestowing upon his elder, but for the life of him, Xemnas could not remember what the gesture was called.

_A hug. _Xemnas blinked as the memories rushed back. A…hug. Yes. The boy was…hugging him. The action was sometimes used to show thanks. Xemnas hesitantly patted the boy's head with his hand.

"You are…welcome?" It came out sounding more like a question, but Xemnas wasn't used to such…emotion. It was strange; foreign, yet somewhat familiar. Like a dream forgotten after being awoken, yet still slightly remembered, and tangible still. Xemnas wasn't sure what to make of it.

The boy finally released him, and grinned up at Xemnas. "Thank you!" He said again, and then turned and hopped on the skateboard he'd leaned against the wall during their conversation, and took off down the hallway, still grinning. He leapt into the air, grinding the board momentarily on the stair rail, and then continued off down the stairs and out of sight. Xemnas didn't even bother reprimanding the boy's destruction. He'd long since given up on curbing Roxas's skateboarding addiction. He snapped his fingers and several dusks appeared.

"The paint is in the second floor closet marked 2G. Please fix where Number XIII has damaged the stair rail."

XIII

"I'm going out tomorrow."

"No, you are not. It's out of the question."

"It wasn't a question." (AN 4)

The face-off currently at hand rivaled that of most Wild Western movies. Naminé had decided to take a day off to go gallivanting around Twilight Town in an attempt to relieve some stress, and of course Diz was denying her that small freedom.

"I don't care, Naminé. Sora isn't getting any better with you out and about all the time." Diz refused to even acknowledge that she was in the room. He continued the conversation while staring avidly at his computer screen. Naminé frowned.

"I need more art supplies."

"I just bought you those new oils. You should be all set."

Naminé rolled her eyes. "You know _nothing _about art. I have oil paints, but I don't have paint thinner. Oils aren't water soluble. My brushes will be ruined after one painting. Neither do I have canvas. So I can't even ruin my brushes because I don't have the proper surface to ruin them on. Also, oil paint takes _forever _to dry. And oil paintings can take _forever. _That sort of medium will have me working on Sora for the next ten years. I need a faster medium. That's why I work with crayons and colored pencils. They are _much _faster." Naminé smirked. Diz couldn't argue with art-speak. He wasn't fluent in it. He would understand the part about time consumption, though; that she could be certain of. He wouldn't dare argue with that.

Diz sighed. "…Fine. If you must, you may leave tomorrow to go find your supplies." Naminé smirked. True, she'd have left with or without his permission, but having him know where she was made life a little bit easier. "…as long as Riku goes with you."

Naminé's smirk dropped off her face as if it weighed as much as a Large Body. "What?" she asked. Diz turned to her, a smirk of his own fixed onto his face.

"You heard me. Riku will accompany you. That way I can be certain that you won't get into trouble. Besides, you two seem to be feuding. This might be the perfect opportunity for the two of you to resolve you differences."

Naminé glared. "I hate you." She spat bitterly. The old man frowned at her.

"I can assure you, my dear, that the feeling is _entirely _mutual."

"Pedophile."

"Witch."

Oh, the love.

XIII

A/N: I blame those last three lines on the cold medicine.

AN 1: Blackrogue123, I hope that answers your question. I honestly don't know how better to describe why Xemnas cared about Roxas dating Namine but not random girls. It makes sense in my mind, and it seems I am simply incapable of getting my point across otherwise.

AN 2: Yes, that would be Lindi. Lindi has a purpose. It will make sense eventually. And Roxas is in trooooouuuble...

AN 3: The plot thickens. Or thins. Hm. Whatever. I promise this horrid OC Lindi will end up being very important, in a very roundabout sort of way. She ends up being an important influence on Roxas, shall we say.

AN 4: Yes, I totally stole that line from Pirates of the Carribean, At World's End. It just fit, okie day?

Like I said, it's getting darker. So, what is Xemnas really doing with giving Roxas a random day off? What will Namine do now that she knows for a fact that Roxas is alive? What purpose does this random OC of mine serve in the grand scheme of the story? (Because I promise, she has a purpose here) Next chapter is already written. It will be posted next week. I'm guessing that after that there will only be about two or three more chapters, so I'm trying to stretch out the length in between updates.


	15. Closer Encounters

**AN: Okay, so here's the thing. Exams start thursday. They end the following wednesday. So, no updates till after that, unfortunately. Also, the laptop got possessed and we had to get it reformatted. So, hopefully we had all of our documents saved to disks, because we lost EVERYTHING that was on that computer. Including the start of next chapter, I think. Basically, out of the three computers we own, one of them will be capable of hooking to the internet-the desktop. The desktop's keyboard sucks. Long story short, until we get one of the laptops hooked to the internet, updates may be even more delayed. It may not make alot of sense, but just go with it.**

**Disclaimer: No.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Closer Encounters_

"…well, I'll be seeing ya!" Roxas called smugly over his shoulder as he opened a portal. He was speaking to his fellow Organization members, who for some reason had all decided to see him off on his special day off. Roxas found the whole situation a little more than fishy, but heck, he was getting a day off! Who was he to complain? He stepped through the portal, giving a final wave before disappearing into the swirling darkness.

As the teen faded from sight, Xemnas dropped his pretense of kindness. Without even turning from the other members, he made his order. "Get to work." Simultaneously the members of the Organization portalled away, all already knowing their missions.

XIII

"Here's how this is going to work. I'm gonna do what I want, and if you get in my way I'll erase your memory so that you can't tell Diz what I've been up to. Got it?" Riku stared at Naminé, clearly undeterred.

"Yeah. How about no?" Riku crossed his arms.

Naminé glared. "I thought you'd have learned from my last meddling with your memory. I'm gonna do what I want today."

Riku glared back through his blindfold. "No. Because whatever you do to my memory, Kairi'll fix once you merge back with her."

Naminé frowned. "What makes you so sure I want to merge back with Kairi? Maybe I want to exist separately."

"You don't 'exist' at all."

The last thing Riku remembered was Naminé's glare before everything went black.

XIII

Roxas strolled leisurely through the warm, sunny streets of twilight town. It was about midday, and the town was in its usual balance of calm and bustling. Roxas was at a bit of a loss at what to do with his day off. No one partied during the day. He thought about what normal kids did during the day. School, he guessed. There was a skate park in Twilight Town, wasn't there? Roxas smiled. When was the last time he'd gone skateboarding somewhere _other _than the World That Never Was? He smirked. Xemnas was getting frustrated with the wheel marks on the floors, stair rails, walls…

Roxas continued his stroll up to the top of Sunset Hill. His eyes closed as he meandered up the hillside, ears listening to the sounds of the lively town. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!! I'LL GO OFF ON MY OWN IF I WANT TO!!" Roxas's eyes shot open as the sound of an oh-so familiar voice filled his ears.

"Naminé?!" Roxas sprinted up the hill and stopped on a dime as he saw Naminé was indeed on the hill. "Naminé!" The blonde turned from the boy she was arguing with, to stare in disbelief at Roxas.

"…Roxas?" They stared at each other for a moment, Roxas the more surprised of the two. He hadn't previously seen Naminé. Except…Roxas paled at the thought. She'd seen him with Lindi…she must be furious. "AAH!" Naminé squealed and flew to him, hopping into his arms and flinging hers around his neck.

"Woah!" Roxas caught her at the last second, spinning her around and staring at her as he sat her down. "Wow…you've…grown up." Indeed she had. Naminé was even more beautiful than she had been a year ago. Her pale face was longer, slimmer. She was curvier, Roxas thought with a blush, and she looked less skinny-still as slender as ever, but just healthier so. Her blonde hair seemed about the same length, and definitely the same style. Roxas grinned at her embarrassed smile. He remembered that Naminé lacked the melanin to blush. She always smiled when she was embarrassed.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment, Roxie?" Naminé asked, tears beginning to form in the corners of her ocean blue eyes. Roxas felt tears coming into his own eyes, and he leaned forward to kiss her.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Roxas turned to look at the other boy, and realized how familiar he looked.

"Hey, don't I know you?" Roxas puzzled for a moment. "What's with the blindfold?"

"Roxas," Naminé began slowly, "This is Riku." Roxas stared at the silver haired boy standing stunned several feet away.

"You were friends with Sora, weren't you? Where is he?"

"Roxas…" Roxas turned back to Naminé confusedly. "We need to get away from here. I have _so _much to tell you. But we can't talk in front of Riku."

Riku reached out a hand. "No! You're not going anywhere!"

Naminé glared at Riku. "Deal with the jealously, Riku. Kairi picked Sora," Naminé leaned back against Roxas's shoulder, and Roxas, catching where she was going, instinctively wrapped his arms around her. Maybe it had something to do with Sora; the instinct to out-do Riku, to have something to brag about that Riku didn't. _He_, Roxas, had Naminé. Riku didn't. "And Naminé picks Roxas." Riku let out a yell, and whipped out his Soul Eater sword.

"Get away from Naminé!" He shouted. Roxas merely laughed.

"You plan on using _that _thing to beat my keyblades?" Riku sneered and rushed forward; knowing Roxas would push Naminé out of the way, and then be unprepared to block Riku's thrust.

That wasn't what happened. Roxas and Naminé merely smirked before disappearing altogether. Riku stabbed and nothing but air. He stumbled to the ground and stared around at the empty hillside.

His mind dimly registered that his shin hurt.

-

"Take that! And that! And that!" Naminé ignored Roxas's stares as she continued kicking the frozen Riku's shin. Roxas had frozen time momentarily right as Riku had lunged. Naminé had proceeded to take advantage of Riku being frozen by kicking him repeatedly in revenge for all of his abuse.

"Naminé," Naminé turned to look at Roxas, for the moment having forgotten his presence.

"Roxas!" Naminé ran to him, flinging her arms around his neck once more, and crushing her lips eagerly to his for the first time in over a year. Roxas just as eagerly returned the sentiment, drinking her in. She tasted even more wonderful than he remembered. None of the girls he had seen over the last year could compare to her. She made him feel alive; real. She was perfection to him.

"I've missed you…" Naminé murmured against his lips. "I've missed you so much…"

Roxas only kissed her more fiercely. "I love you…"

How he missed uttering those words.

When time finally unfroze, and Riku was left to ponder why his shin hurt, the two lovers had already retreated to a more private place.

XIII

"What now?" Roxas and Naminé had retreated to the top of the clock tower, and, having finished making out, were attempting to fill the silence that often settles between two people who have not seen each other in a long time. They were both tearful, and even Roxas, who would never in a million years admit to being sensitive, was finding himself emotional.

"They told me you were dead…" Naminé trailed off, teary eyed.

"They told me _you_ were dead…"

"Who told you?"

"Axel."

"He was probably covering for us."

"Us who?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. Larxene told me about you. I've since then figured out why." They lapsed into silence again.

"So, what is it you needed to tell me?"

Naminé laughed humorlessly. "What don't I need to tell you? There's so much to say…so much to explain. Please understand, I hadn't any choice…there was nothing I could do…"

"Naminé…"

"I need to tell you…what I know about Sora."

XIII

"You're sure that you can't tell me where he is?"

Naminé nodded ruefully. "His memory isn't finished yet. Until it is…I can't let you meet him. I love you, Roxas, but I have a duty to fix what I have ruined. Also…I can't trust that Diz won't devise something malicious for your future. He thinks nobodies are worthless, and if he were to do something to you because I brought you into contact with him…I'd never be able to forgive myself. You have to understand, I'm doing this for your own good."

Roxas was silent. Naminé had explained to him _most_ of what had happened to her since he had last seen her, but she also kept her secrets. Roxas could understand her need to keep secrets. He trusted that she wouldn't purposefully lead him astray. Still, he couldn't help but wonder…

"So why are you still staying with this…Diz guy anyway? From the sounds of it, he and Riku treat you like dirt." Roxas scrutinized her, and he saw Naminé squirm under his gaze.

"I haven't anywhere else to go. The trouble of moving Sora…I simply can't. Not while Diz is around. He…I don't know what else to do." She explained, shrugging.

Roxas nodded understandingly. "If you'd tell me where they were, I could…get rid of Diz for you." Naminé's eyes grew wide.

"Roxas! You don't mean-"

He nodded. "I could get you away from there. We could find somewhere else to hide you and Sora. Surely there's somewhere in all the worlds-"

"You'd have to leave the Organization."

Silence fell between them once more. "They're hiding something from me." Naminé looked up at the hard look on Roxas's face. "I don't know what it is, but there's something they don't want me to know. Why can I feel? Why aren't I as heartless and unfeeling as other nobodies? Is it because of Sora? Is it because of you? They know. I'm sure of it. And if they won't tell me…I'll…I don't know what I'll do."

"I wonder sometimes if the Organization are really good people after all." Roxas nearly gave himself whiplash turning his head to look at her.

"What?"

Naminé shrugged. "I've been held captive by the bad guys and the good guys, and I really can't tell the difference anymore. They all seem the same to me." She sighed pensively. "Maybe there isn't a right side and a wrong side here…Maybe there are just a lot of people who can't seem to agree on a right course of action. The Organization just wants to exist; they have good intentions but wrong courses of action. Diz wants revenge but he also wants to restore his good name. And you and I…I wonder if we're nothing but the means to an end sometimes…" She looked at Roxas, her eyes pleading honesty. "Am I a good person?"

Roxas was unprepared for the question. "What?"

"Am I a good person? I know there are still good people in the worlds. There's you, and Sora, and I know there's good in Riku yet. And Kairi must be a good person because she's a Princess of Heart. I wonder if that's enough to make me a good person." She shrugged again.

Roxas nodded. "I think you're a good person. There are good people who do bad things, and I think maybe that's where all of us are at; you, me, Riku, the Organization."

Naminé smiled. "You think I may be a good person after all?" Roxas nodded, smiling.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, smiling still. Roxas draped an arm delicately around her pale shoulder, nuzzling his head against hers. "I missed you, Nami." Naminé smiled into his neck.

"I missed you too."

"I'm sorry."

Namine tilted her head up to look at him, but Roxas couldn't seem to bring his eyes to meet hers. "For what?"

"For..." Roxas sighed. "You know...she meant nothing, I swear."

Namine sighed. "You've been lonely; I can understand that much. We were both looking for substitutes, I guess. I with Riku and you with..._her_. I just realized how flawed a plan that was before you did."

Roxas frowned. "You and Riku?"

Namine shrugged. "I've been lonely too; and Riku can be sweet when he actually wants to be...not that that's been anytime recently. I'm just Kairi to him...Was that girl the only one?"

"No...she was just the closest I came to an actual emotional attachment. Despite how shallow she seems, I think there's some real depth to her. I guess that was what drew me to her. We're both living really messed up lives, and neither of us really knows how to deal with it."

Namine smiled at him. "Well, I don't know about her; but I know you're a good person, and I know you'll figure it out someday." Roxas smiled back and nuzzled his head against hers. It was enough for Namine to believe there was good in him; even if he wasn't so sure.

Strains of some sort of slow, jazzy music were carried up to the top of the tower where they sat. Some troubadour down below was striking up a foxtrot with his friends, and some of the people in the square had started dancing. Roxas stood, lifting Naminé with him. "Hey," he whispered into her ear, "Let's dance." Naminé shook her head.

"Roxas, I don't know how to dance." Roxas smiled.

"Neither do I." This made Naminé giggle. She took his offered hand, placing the other tentatively on his shoulder. A little shiver went down her spine as Roxas's hand took her waist. She giggled as he started to sway in a little circle, dancing even though they weren't aware they knew how. Naminé rested her head against his chest, smiling so widely she thought her cheeks may freeze that way. Roxas was smiling too; how had he survived the past year without her? Why had he thought that any girl could substitute for what Naminé was to him?

She looked up at him, beautiful blue eyes speaking volumes. Roxas leaned down and gently claimed her lips, smiling as he did so. It was a joy to kiss her like no other woman could supply. Roxas had kissed enough other girls to know. Not even the ones who he'd found were really good kissers; experienced in all physical expressions of love; could measure up to Naminé. They had all given him a taste of pure physical pleasure in a kiss; Naminé was so much more. It was deeper, it was more intimate than anything he could ever hope for in any girl that wasn't Naminé.

Naminé was melting in a pool of shining sunlight. It was heaven, to be kissing him again. Riku had done nothing for her; Roxas was everything that made her believe she wasn't as heartless as she was always told she was supposed to be. They broke apart, lips only centimeters apart, not wanting to let go yet, but also not wanting to suffocate. Air supply refilled, Naminé leaned forward again; Roxas happily obliged her, just happy to be with her once more.

Their escape from reality had been wonderful, but destined to end.

"There you are." Naminé broke from Roxas's kiss with a gasp, spinning to find Riku staring at her. "You're coming back with me. Now."

Roxas stepped in front of her. "No. You aren't in charge of Naminé. She can do whatever she wants."

Riku glared. "Then you leave me no choice." He stepped forward, pushing Roxas out of the way and grabbing Naminé's arms. She screamed and scratched at Riku's arms, but he was too strong for her. Naminé knew it was hopeless. She would have to return to the mansion at some point, one way or another.

"Roxas!" she called to the teen, who Riku had knocked over the edge of the tower, and who was now struggling to climb back on to the ledge. Naminé wasn't worried about his safety. Roxas was perfectly capable of portalling before he hit the ground. "We'll meet again, I promise!" And then she was gone, pulled back into a portal by Riku.

Roxas swung his legs wildly, trying to swing his weight back onto the ledge. Finally he managed to do so, and collapsed against the marble columns. "Naminé…" he panted, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I'm such an idiot!" He felt like a failure. He had failed to protect Naminé…again. He had let someone take her from him…again. He had failed; failed, failed, failed, failed. He sighed in exasperation. He didn't know where to go to find her. She had refused to tell him their hide-out. He finally resolved himself to at least look around town for her, and portalled down from the top of the tower.

XIII

It seemed that Riku and Naminé had left from Twilight Town altogether. Roxas hadn't seen any sign of either of them anywhere. He looked up at the clock tower; it was nearing late afternoon, around five o'clock. At least there was still time to enjoy what was left of his day off, if he even felt like enjoying it.

"Roxas! Roxas!" Roxas was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of a familiar voice and looked around wildly to see from whence the voice had come. He was surprised to see the familiar face; or not so familiar face, seeing as it had changed significantly since the last time he'd seen it (which was saying something since it had only been a couple of weeks.)

Roxas stared. "Lindi?" It was indeed Lindi who was skipping along the cobblestone to meet him. She hugged him immediately, and Roxas was too shocked to protest. She was wearing the tiniest bit of make-up; a little lipstick and mascara, perhaps, but not the full mask he was accustomed to seeing. It made her look prettier, actually. She looked more natural, less fake. She looked healthier, too. Roxas guessed she was eating more. Her hair was still bleach blonde with its dark roots, but with the lack of makeup she looked overall less fake than she did normally. Roxas also noticed that for once, Lindi was modestly dressed. She was wearing a skirt that reached all the way down to her knees (Roxas had never seen her in anything longer than mid-thigh). Her shirt was modestly cut and was actually long enough to cover her entire mid-rift (it reached to her hips, if Roxas was correct). To top it off, she was wearing ballet flats instead of stilettos. She actually looked…nice.

"Woah." Roxas stared at her. She was smiling in a way he'd never seen her smile before. She actually looked happy.

"So, Roxie, are you liking the new me?" Roxas could only stare and nod.

"What happened to you? You're…covered."

Lindi laughed. "Well, you can't expect me to wear a mini-skirt to church, now can you?" She pointed behind her to a large building that Roxas now realized was a church. Hold on. Roxas was struck dumb for a moment. _Lindi_, the girl who flaunted her sexuality like a peacock would its feathers, was going to _church_?

"Either you're the most hypocritical person in the world, or you've changed."

Lindi smiled. "Well, I thought about what you said, and I realized that you're right. I want to be loved, and I want respect. And clearly the way I was going about it wasn't getting me anywhere…so…" she shrugged. "I figured, 'what have I got to lose?' So, here I am. I don't claim to be the most pious person in town, but y'know, it beats being the biggest…well, the biggest you-know-what." She laughed. "I'm trying to kick my habit of cursing all the time, too. That's gonna be hard." She laughed again. "Anyway. I'm testing out a new way of life, seeing if I can't find what I'm looking for."

Roxas smiled at her. "So, how's that working for you?"

Lindi grinned. "Good. Better than casual dating. Really, I'm doing better. Thank you." Her smile was genuine. "You've done a lot for me, simply by turning me down time after time. You actually respected me. And, you cared enough to yell at me. Thanks. I really needed that."

Roxas nodded and grinned. Suddenly the church bells chimed, and Lindi frowned. "Well, I better get going. I don't want to be late." She laughed. "I never thought I'd find myself worried about being late to a Wednesday night church service. The only thing I ever thought I'd be late for would be my…" she trailed off shaking her head. "Nevermind. You're a guy. You wouldn't understand." Roxas laughed nervously. Unfortunately, he had caught her drift. Simply because hearing that Lindi had ended up pregnant would be as unsurprising as hearing that Marluxia had actually been gay.

"Well, good luck Lindi." Roxas told her, grinning.

"Thanks." She hugged him again, still smiling, before hopping off to the church building.

Roxas felt strangely encouraged. If someone like Lindi could pull a complete 180 and end up as a churchgoer (he'd always had her pinned for a future hooker) then maybe it was possible for anyone to change.

Maybe even Roxas.

* * *

AN: See, I told you Lindi had a purpose. I took a long road to get there, but I had a point in the end. In other news, Microsoft Vista scares me, and its new version of Word scares me even more; any typos or major weirdness in format can be blamed on that version of Word.


	16. Breaking Points

**AN: The long awaited next chapter! This, ladies and gentlemen, I am both happy and sad to say, is the penultimate chapter. For those of you who don't know what "penultimate" means, this is the next-to last chapter. Yes. I know. I'm both happy that I have almost finished, but I'm also a bit sad to see it's almost over. This chapter is really long, and the next chapter may be kind of short. I don't know yet. Also, I mercilessly abused the hyphen and semi-colon here. By the way, IT'S SUMMER!! The next and (sniff) final chapter will be up soon. So, without further ado, the penultimate chapter!**

**Disclaimer: for the fifteenth time...**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Breaking Points_

"Get your hands off me! Let go!" Diz sighed. He'd been expecting something of this sort. It had been too quiet. Diz spun his chair around just in time to see Naminé come tumbling through the portal, and Riku stepping out behind her. Naminé quickly scrambled to her feet. "You didn't have to push me!" she yelled, glaring at him.

Diz stood and grabbed Naminé's arm, pulling her around to look at him. "What did you do?" he demanded, his orange eye glaring at her. Naminé glared back and wrenched her arm from his grasp.

"She ran away from me," Riku growled. Diz's eye narrowed further.

"This behavior is unacceptable. Perhaps it would be more prudent to keep you locked up in a sleeping pod every moment that you are not working on Sora."

Naminé's eyes widened. "You can't."

Diz shrugged. "There are a number of ways I could make your life more difficult, Naminé. Don't force me to use them. You're only purpose-the only reason I have tolerated your 'existence' thus far-is to repair Sora's memories. Were you not so vital I would have disposed of you long ago."

So she was little more than a prisoner-if that wasn't the story of her short life. It wasn't fair. These two-both had fallen to the darkness-willingly bent to it. What choice had she had? It wasn't her fault the heartless had stolen Kairi's heart. It wasn't her fault Sora had gauged out his own heart to save Kairi. Why did these two think they were so much better-they _willingly_ chose the darkness.

"Roxas is alive," Riku stated. "That's why she ran off today. To be with him." Diz was silent for a moment. He seemed to be calculating something behind that malicious orange eye. Finally he grabbed Naminé's forearm and looked back down at her, giving her a sinister smile.

"How sweet. Nobodies who thought they could feel." His sarcastic comment ended in a laugh. "You haven't the heart to love Sora, and neither have you the heart to love Roxas. You are heartless, my dear. When are you going to accept this?"

Perhaps it was just one insult too many. Perhaps it was because he brought up Roxas. For whatever reason, it was too much. At that moment, Naminé snapped. She had endured abuse since her non-existence began, and she had finally had enough. Diz yelped and let go of Naminé's arm. He wasn't sure if it was darkness or heat that had seared through his glove-but it had burned him either way.

"Diz!" He broke from his thoughts at Riku's warning, and his eye fell on Naminé. She was glaring at him; standing resolutely in the center of the little computer room. But that was by no means what was so terrifying. Darkness was pooling around her feet; pure, black, inky darkness. The darkness was spreading; it was migrating from around her feet to the farther reaches of the room-toward himself and Riku. What was worse-there were things coming out of it-heartless, nobodies. They were climbing out of the darkness and protectively surrounding Naminé.

"What do you know of the matters of the heart?!" she shrieked, "You're more heartless than I am! It didn't take Riku as long to realize that I _didn't _have a heart as it did for me to realize that you _did_!" Diz had no reply at his disposal. Naminé could control the darkness. And she had finally realized it. The heartless followed whoever was stronger-and considering that all three of them had ties to the darkness and yet Naminé was the one the heartless stood behind_…_It was worrisome to say the least. But the nobodies were more worrisome still. There might be some way to wrench the heartless from Naminé's control; the nobodies would follow only her.

"You will _not _push me around anymore," Naminé stated calmly. Despite, or maybe because of her calm tone, her voice radiated anger. It was a fury they had not known her to be capable of. For the first time, Diz was actually afraid of her. Naminé took a step toward him, and her minions took it as a sign to attack. Riku jumped in front of Diz and began frantically hacking at the heartless and nobodies. It seemed to no avail, for with every monster that fell to Riku's blade, another creature rose from the still-spreading darkness.

"Naminé! Stop!" Diz cried, genuinely terrified. "You wouldn't _dare-_"

"You need me to fix Sora," Naminé yelled back. "But I don't need you. I could kill both of you and never regret it! I can't _feel_, remember!?" Diz and Riku glanced at each other. She was right. Naminé could easily get rid of the both of them and never feel guilty about it unless she wanted to. Naminé smiled softly at the looks of horror on what she could see of her companion's faces.

She watched as Riku tried in vain to cut through the increasing hordes of heartless and nobodies. Finally he managed to hack through a path to her, and Naminé was about to summon another nobody to her aid when she saw his blade swing toward her-then all went black.

XIII

"Roxas!" Roxas's skateboard skidded to a halt in the middle of the hallway.

"Yeah, I know Xemnas will have a hernia about me riding my skateboard in the hallway, but I don't ca-"

"Actually," Demyx interrupted, scratching his head, "I was just going to ask how your day off was. Did you have fun?"

Roxas relaxed significantly. "Oh, um, yeah. Sure." He looked around. "Hey, have you seen Axel?"

Demyx stroked his chin. "Um, I think I saw him…in the kitchen." Roxas started to head to the left, but Demyx interrupted. "No, that was before he was talking to Xigbar." Roxas turned and began skating to the right. "No, nevermind. He was talking to Xigbar before he went to the kitchen." Roxas rolled his eyes and took off to the left before Demyx could change his mind again.

Roxas hadn't bothered changing back into his Organization coat yet. He had to find Axel; the pyromaniac was the only person he felt like he could trust anymore. Demyx was his friend, of course, but he had trusted Demyx with sensitive information before-and what a mess that had ended up being. He honestly would've told his friend if Demyx had been at all capable of keeping a secret.

Roxas turned a corner to the staircase and grinded down the stair rail, nearly colliding with Xaldin when he reached the bottom. "Careful, Roxas." Xaldin somehow managed to ruffle the young nobody's hair as he sped past-that was the odd thing about Xaldin; he could be truly frightening and vicious, but he was mostly just a big teddy bear. (AN1)

Just as Roxas was approaching the kitchen door, Axel exited, and Roxas barely avoided hitting him. Roxas swerved too hard, and his board flipped, sending Roxas crashing to the ground. He shook the stars from his vision and blinked up at Axel, who was smirking down at him. "And what move was that, Roxas?"

Roxas glared. "Shut up." Axel smiled and reached down to help his friend up.

"I told you those things were dangerous."

"Whatever. Look, I need to talk to you about something," Roxas quickly scanned the area to make sure they were alone. "There isn't anyone else around here, is there?"

Axel shook his head, looking concerned. "No…why?"

Roxas's face hardened. He lowered his voice. "I saw Naminé today."

Axel frowned, and before Roxas had time to react, the nobody had grabbed his arm and pulled him through a portal.

…

When they exited the portal, they were atop Memory's Skyscraper. Roxas immediately rounded on his friend. "Why did you tell me she was dead?! I spent a year being miserable because I thought I'd lost her, and she was fine the whole time!"

Axel sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Okay, look…" he sighed again. "The Organization had to think she was dead."

Roxas stared. "Why couldn't you have at least told me the truth?"

Axel shook his head. "It was better that you thought she was gone. I can't begin to explain to you why. For one thing, if you weren't clearly devastated that Naminé was gone, then everyone else might have questioned the situation. Just trust me…it was better that you didn't know."

Roxas shook his head. "You knew about Sora, didn't you? You were trying to help him. That's why you wouldn't tell me anything."

Axel tilted his head to the side as he scrutinized his friend. "She told you pretty much everything, didn't she?" Roxas nodded. "Hm…So, you know."

"What's everyone hiding from me?" Roxas asked; as he dejectedly slumped down to sit on the roof. "What doesn't everyone want me to know?"

Axel sighed again and sat down beside him. "I can't tell you, Rox. I would if I could, but I can't. I'm sorry…"

"You're supposed to be my friend." Roxas said coldly, not looking at Axel. "You're supposed to tell me these things."

Axel stood. "I'm really sorry, Roxas. But…some things….you're just going to have to figure out for yourself." Roxas didn't even look up as Axel portalled away.

His best friend, the only person he felt like he could really trust, was keeping secrets from him too. They all knew-everyone; the Organization, Axel, Naminé…they all knew. _What _they knew, Roxas didn't know. But they knew, and whatever they knew was vitally important. Roxas couldn't stand the secrecy anymore. He hated being in the dark-he needed answers. Naminé probably would have told him, but her primary duty was to fix Sora's memory.

Maybe that was where the answers lay; if he could find Sora… He could free Naminé from Diz and Riku, and then she could tell him everything. He could meet Sora, they could find Kairi, and they could find all the answers to who they were. So what if nobodies were supposed to be doomed to a darkened non-life followed by fading into darkness? He refused to accept that fate-his destiny had to be greater than that. The Organization wanted hearts, that wasn't criminal-but the things they did to get them…Roxas didn't want to fit into that pattern.

Well, he was already an anomaly anyway.

He took a deep breath. The whole idea was crazy, it was suicide, really. But it had to be done. He couldn't do this anymore. It was terrifying, but all at once the knowledge that he may very well die trying didn't seem so bad. It was unavoidable, really. His mind was made up, and it was almost as if the act had already been done. If he had to die, then so be it. He'd rather go down fighting than be stabbed in the back or simply fade away.

That was it, then.

He was leaving.

XIII

Naminé blinked open her eyes and looked around. She was in her room, lying on her bed, if she wasn't mistaken. Her head hurt, and it took a few minutes for her to remember everything that had happened that day. She dizzily sat up, and gasped as she noticed Riku was leaning against her wall.

"Calm down," he said simply, emotionlessly; staring at his feet. "The Organization is growing stronger. We need you to hurry and finish with Sora. You're free to do as you please when you aren't working, provided you don't interfere with Diz's plans. As long as you aren't in the way, and you aren't neglecting your work, you can do what you want."

Naminé stared. She…won? The thought made her smile. She had terrified Diz and Riku into giving her more freedom. She didn't need much, in all honesty. It would just be nice to get out every once in a while without Diz having a cow. "Um, thanks."

Riku nodded. "I'm sorry for treating you so bad most of the time…" he said after a long pause. "It's just that I really miss Sora. He's my best friend, you know. I hate that there's nothing I can do to help him. I hate to think that Sora's memory is just sitting there, all screwed up, while you're off doing who knows what…"

Naminé looked down. "I'm sorry, Riku. But, you know, I told you that bringing Kairi here would help his recovery tremendously."

Riku shook his head. "I can't face her. Not after what I've done. I don't even know that I can face Sora."

"But you can face me."

Riku shrugged. "You're different…"

"Have you forgotten who your friends are?"

Riku looked up at her. "What are talking about? Of course not! Sora and Kairi are my best friends, that's why-"

Naminé shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I was talking about Roxas and I."

Riku tilted his head and frowned. "Look, I don't see how-"

"Roxas and I _are _Sora and Kairi. You've gotten so wrapped up in helping them, that you've forgotten that by helping us, you're helping them. What would Kairi say if she knew how you've been treating me? Well, I can tell you what she'd say, seeing as I've already said it." Her blue eyes implored his help. "If you want to help Sora, you have to help Roxas. And you have to help me."

Riku shook his head. "No…I can't…"

Naminé suddenly understood. "This is about Kairi. This has always been about Kairi, hasn't it?"

Riku nodded. "We fought over her for _years._ I mean, we'd always been competitive, but Kairi was like a reason to continue the competition. And while I can accept that she chose Sora, I always thought…" he sighed. "I always hoped and thought that there was some part of her that still liked me better. So when I met you…"

"You thought I was that part…" Naminé said softly, understanding. She sighed. "Riku, I don't have Kairi's memories, but through Sora, I have some access to her heart. It's a fragile connection, but it's all I have. But I can tell you honestly…Kairi didn't exactly _choose _Sora."

Riku's jaw dropped. "Do you mean-"

Naminé sadly shook her head. "Riku, there was never a choice to make."

"But you-"

She shrugged. "I've been alone for a long time. You were always like a big brother to Kairi, and that connection was the closest thing to love I had at the time."

Riku sighed and looked away. An awkward, uncomfortable, and overwhelmingly sad silence filled the room.

"I want to forget."

Naminé frowned. "What?"

Riku didn't look at her as he answered. "I want to forget that you're Kairi's nobody. It'll be easier that way. I could deal with Kairi picking Sora if I could believe that she'd felt something for me at some time or another. If ignorance is bliss, then I want ignorance. Leave me my happy delusion."

Naminé stood and approached Riku. "Are you sure that this is what you want? If it is, then I'll do it, but…"

"Yes." Riku nodded. "This is what I want."

Naminé sighed. "If you're sure…"

(AN 2)

XIII

"What did she say?"

Riku grunted in reply as he entered the computer room. Diz was doing something on his computer, but Riku couldn't understand what it was. "She just sort of smiled to herself. I think she was just thrilled that she managed to scare us."

"I wasn't scared."

"Sure you weren't."

Diz frowned in annoyance. His frown grew at the pop-up that had just appeared on his screen. "This blasted message has continued to appear every five minutes, and I can't get it to go away! All my technology knowledge, and I can't get it to disappear and not return!" Riku leaned in to see the message through his blindfold.

**A new version of iTunes is ready to be downloaded. This new upgrade is free. The download will not take long. If you close this message, Windows will automatically remind you in five (5) minutes.**

**Download Now**

**Remind me in five (5) minutes**

Riku could've died laughing right then and there. Diz being defeated by a five-foot-nothing, 95 pound, fifteen-year-old girl, and iTunes, all in the same day; that was just priceless. Riku however, was intelligent enough not to burst out laughing at that moment. Diz was aggravated enough as it was. "Just click 'Download Now'. It shouldn't take long, and then it will be out of the way."

Diz sighed and did as Riku told him. "Why I ever let you kids install such superfluous software on my supercomputer…What is it doing now?"

**Download commencing. Time remaining:6 min 47 sec.**

Diz turned to frown at Riku, who gave him an apologetic smile. "Well, it's only six minutes."

"Perfect…I have so much work to be done! At this rate I won't have the town finished!"

Riku cocked his head to the side. "What? Town? What do you mean?"

Diz smiled maliciously. "Today's events have yielded one very nice piece of information: Roxas is alive."

Riku shrugged. "And this is so important because…"

"Because Roxas is half of Sora, and therefore holds half of who Sora is within him. How many times has Naminé mentioned that Sora would benefit from Roxas?" Diz laughed. "In order for Sora to be powerful enough to take down the Organization, he needs to be reunited with Roxas."

Riku wasn't sure he understood. "But…Roxas is with the Organization, and he'll never come willingly."

Diz smiled at Riku. "Not unless someone goes to collect him…"

Riku was silent, taking the suggestion in.

Diz turned back to his computer. "It would help Sora's recovery in ways we cannot even begin to imagine…"

XIII

A few days passed in relative calm at the manor. Naminé was working diligently-and happily-and her frequent breaks ended with her happily going back to work feeling well rested and ready to continue. Diz continued working on his…whatever it was. And Riku was left to ponder the only way of helping Sora that he knew.

He couldn't face Naminé, although he wasn't sure why, so he had taken to standing against the wall in the computer room while Diz worked. Something had been bothering him, and he wasn't sure why. It was odd, because he felt like he should already know. He wanted to know, but he had a strange feeling that he really _didn't_.

"Diz?" He asked, finally resolving to find out. The older man grunted in reply. "Whose nobody is Naminé? I feel like I know, but I can't remember."

Diz nearly gave himself vertigo spinning around to look at Riku.

XIII

Naminé's pencil was poised perfectly, and angled at the precise angle she needed. This one detail was so important that she needed perfect concentration to create it. Her grip on her pencil was so tight that she worried it might break, but it was necessary to keep the pencil still. The graphite neared the paper, closer and closer, until it touched the paper at the precise point she needed. She dared not breathe a sigh of relief yet-the line had yet to be drawn. Carefully, she maneuvered the pencil along the line she saw so clearly in her mind. She was almost done-this vital detail almost completed-

"Naminé!"

Naminé started, and her pencil jerked across the page, leaving a bold, jagged line in its wake.

"No!" She yelled, staring at her ruined drawing. She rounded on Diz, who had been the one who startled her. "Look what you made me do!"

"What have you done to Riku?!"

"Do you have any idea how long I've been working on this drawing?!"

"Why doesn't Riku remember that you are Kairi's nobody?!"

"You ruined my drawing!"

Diz opened his mouth to reply before realizing that it would get him nowhere. "I'm sorry, but this is important!"

Naminé held up her drawing. "So is this! Look at what you made me do!"

Diz rolled his eyes. "I'm very, very, sorry, now listen!"

Naminé rolled her eyes back. "What is so important that it merits ruining my drawing?"

"Why doesn't Riku remember whose nobody you are?" He demanded.

Naminé sighed and rolled her eyes again. "He was frustrated because Kairi picked Sora and not him, and seeing as I'm not interested in him either, he got all upset about Kairi and asked me to make him forget that I'm her nobody. He doesn't want to know, so don't tell him. It's complicated, okay?"

Diz took a moment to let this sink in, while Naminé went back to trying to fix her desecrated drawing. "This was triggered by seeing you with Roxas, I imagine."

"Yup."

"Hm." Diz was silent for a moment longer. "You said that Sora might recover faster if he were to contact Roxas, correct?" It was by no means a question, and Naminé didn't bother answering. "Riku is going to the Organization's world tomorrow."

"Why?"

"For Roxas, of course."

Naminé was silent for a moment, and then, "He won't help you."

"Who said we were going to ask? I've got a virtual version of Twilight Town all set up for him. He'll live there until Sora awakes, if he refuses to come willingly. Perhaps if you were to go along and persuade him…"

"He still wouldn't. He knows what you're like. He won't do it."

Diz frowned. "Then he leaves Riku no choice. In the end, I assume that he will be fine. You need not worry too much. And you need not interfere. Should you choose to try and stop us, I will insure that Roxas's existence becomes all the more miserable because of it."

Naminé looked up to stare at him in horror. "You can't!"

"Actually, my dear, I can. Even if you interfere, I will still succeed. My plans have all been made and calculated around your interruptions."

A portal appeared behind him, and with a sinister smile, he stepped into it.

Naminé felt frozen. What could she do? Riku would do anything to help Sora, and there would be no talking him out of this. If only there was some way to warn Roxas…

Sneaking into the World That Never Was would be suicide…it was simply too risky…

But it had to be done.

* * *

AN 1: I can just picture Xaldin being a big cuddle bunny when it came to kids. And c'mon, Roxas is so cute and lovable even Xaldin would have to admit it.

AN 2: First off, I told you it would make sense why Riku knew whose nobody Namine was in my story but didn't in the game. Two, this scene is supposed to illustrate somewhat the odd relationship between Namine and Riku-they have an odd sort of love/hate relationship. They really are friends, underneath it all, but they have different goals that collide and tear them apart.

AN: This was such a weird chapter. I don't think it quite flowed right. Anyway, I tried to balance the drama with some humor, so how did it come out?

**rEvIeWeR sHoUt OuTs**

Seeing as its the next-to-last chapter...

**blackrogue123**-My fellow DiZ/Ansem hater. Even if Roxas doesn't get to beat Diz to within an inch of his life, Namine at least gets to scare the living daylights out of him! When I eventually figure out how to decently draw action scences, I promise to make you a drawing of Roxas beating Diz.

**Windracer Leopard-**Whose rambling I never tire of. An awesome and faithful reviewer! Thanks for all your comments and reviews on all of my stories that you've reviewed. Thanks so much for the support! Keep rockin', and for heaven's sakes keep rambling!

**Scorch406-**Another of my faithful reviewers! One of those people who has reviewed nearly every chapter, and I love you for it! It's people like you that keep me going on this story! Your reviews equal PWNAGE!!

**Misu-Kun**-A total sweetie who has spazzed over my story in nearly every review! Did I reply to your last review? I meant to, and I remember that I started to, but something came up, and I can't remember if I finished the reply or not. Anyway, I wouldn't have the motivation to finish this thing if I didn't have people like you begging for updates, yet in a kind way, not in an annoying "you stink because you never review" kind of way. You are awesome!

**SerenitySoldier97**-You like Rox/Nam, and, as promised, this is ending Rox/Nam! Thank you for all the reviews and support, even when it seemed this would be namiku instead of namixas.

**Thanks also to EVERYONE else who I haven't mentioned individually. I appreciate every review, and every reviewer, and it's because of y'all that I've kept this story going and haven't abandoned it like my other multi-chap fics (seriously, after I post this, I'm deleting both of my TT fics. I simply have no interest in finishing either of them). Thanks to all of you. Y'all rock my world! I'm gonna get started on the final chapter TODAY because y'all inspire me to get it written! Thanks! Let cookies shower down upon all of you!**


	17. Epilogue: Two Anomalies

**A/N: Well, here it is, the final chapter. I know it's a little later than usual, but I wanted to make sure it was as perfect as possible. I've also been spending some quality time with my mom the past week; doing things like remaking a dress, dying the ends of my hair fushia, seeing Indiana Jones; you get the picture. Anyway, I hope this chapter is up to everyone's expectations, and if not, PLEASE tell me so I can perfect it. **

**It's bittersweet to be finishing this up. I'm happy to have finished my largest fanfiction undertaking to date, but I'm also kind of sad that it's over. Endless thank you's to all my readers and reviewers for all your love and support. I wouldn't have had the determination to finish this without you. Thanks. Also, I have done an illustration/fanfiction cover of Namine in her wedding dress, if anyone would like to see it, there is a link to it on my profile. Please check it out. I'm taking a college-level art course next year, so obviously my art doesn't totally suck.**

**Disclaimer: Alas, nothing but the story and the almost-poem at the end.**

Much Ado About Nothing

_Epilogue: The Two Anomalies_

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Naminé rolled over and pulled her pillow over her head. Seven-hundred and forty-three sheep later and insomnia still held her in its unrelenting grip.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

"_Well, most of the time you don't really think about it. But you can always feel it beating. It's steady, like the beat of a drum, or the ticking of a clock." _

_Naminé tilted her head to the side. "How can you feel something like that? I mean, I understand how you can hear it, but how can you feel it?"_

"_Well…" Riku scratched his head. "Here." He gently took her hand and pulled it close, pressing her open palm to his chest. Her eyes grew wide as she felt the steady pounding of Riku's heart against her hand. It was such a curious sensation, and she missed it the second her hand pulled away from his chest._

Naminé pressed her palm to her own chest. She sighed as all she encountered was stillness. She'd managed to access some of her own memories through Sora's connection to Kairi, but she'd never been able to conjure the feeling of having a heart. What did it feel like to have that warm constantly pulsing through her body? What did it feel like to have a beating heart? The organ itself was still there, she knew, it was a part of the body, and therefore remained. However, it did not beat.

She rolled over to stare at her ceiling. What would it be like to have a heart? Would she ever know again? Roxas would. When Diz finished with him, he'd meld back into Sora, and then he'd have a heart.

What would become of her?

Naminé finally sat up, resolving herself to the fact that she wouldn't be getting any sleep. If Riku succeeded, Roxas would end up rejoining Sora. If Riku failed, Roxas would come and get her, and he would want to meet Sora. Such an encounter would probably end in Roxas rejoining Sora as well. The first thing Sora would want to do would be to find Kairi.

"_It's not you. You aren't the person who's most important to me. It's her."_

Sora would be in love with Kairi. He would find her, and they would return home to live happily ever after. And she, Naminé would simply fade back into darkness. Roxas would no longer be able to care for her once he was a part of Sora.

"_But, what becomes of us if we don't find hearts? Will we just live this half-life forever? Do we die eventually? What happens?" _

_The tall redheaded nobody who'd introduced himself as Axel didn't answer. Naminé wanted to ask again, just to make sure he'd heard her, but she was too timid. She didn't know much about these Organization people yet; she wasn't sure if he'd hurt her._

"_Please tell me. What happens if we don't find hearts?"_

_Axel sighed and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Eventually, nobodies who don't find hearts simply disappear. They just…fade back into darkness. Finding a heart is no easy matter. That's why the Organization works so hard. Because we know we're doomed to fade away."_

There was no getting around it. She would disappear eventually, back into the darkness like all other nobodies. It was unavoidable, inescapable; it was the fate of a nobody. Meanwhile Roxas would be the one who would regain his heart. He wouldn't disappear. He would be whole.

Naminé smiled to herself. There was something almost comforting about knowing how inevitable the events of the future would be. That was simply the way it was, and somehow accepting that gave her such an overwhelming sense of peace. At least she knew what she had to work with.

Diz wanted revenge. The Organization wanted Kingdom Hearts. The Heartless wanted hearts. No one wanted Roxas, Sora, Kairi, or Riku as anything more than tools. Unless someone tried to help them for the sake of helping them, the forces surrounding them would tear them apart. Naminé already knew her fate. The least she could do was insure a better fate for the others.

XIII

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Roxas pulled his coat on hurriedly and pulled up the zipper. Time was not on his side. He'd been given a mission tomorrow, and he had to be ready to leave in time for the Organization to think he'd simply left to complete it. That would give him more time to make a getaway before they began to question where he was. He wouldn't be missed until late tomorrow night. What was more, almost everyone had a mission, and the world would be mostly empty.

He wouldn't have another opportunity like that.

Roxas had few possessions to his name, but the few that were truly important he had swept through a portal into an abandoned apartment in Twilight Town.

Roxas groaned in frustration as his zipper caught on the black fabric. It was such a chore, putting on this coat. The zipper always got stuck, and after the zipping came the troublesome fastening of the chain around his neck. He'd be happy not to have to deal with it everyday.

Roxas looked in the mirror, facing his reflection and his decision. He was really doing this; he was really leaving. It felt…surreal. This was the only hone he had ever known, and although a good deal of the misfortunes in his short life had come about because of the Organization, he'd actually had a number of good times there.

He'd learned how to bug Larxene just enough to make her threaten dismemberment, but not enough to actually make her want to go through with it. He'd listened as Demyx practiced his sitar and composed music that displayed a level of emotion beyond what a nobody should have been capable of feeling. He'd pulled countless pranks with Axel.

Axel…

Axel was his best friend; Roxas felt strangely guilty at the thought of abandoning him. But it was something that had to be done. Even if Sora had the keyblade, it didn't make sense for Roxas to have it as well. Was it Sora's keyblade? Was it a sort of nobody keyblade? Were there more than one? It didn't make sense.

The keyblade chose wielders who had strong hearts full of light…so why did he have one, nay, two, if he didn't have a heart? The Organization sure wasn't going to tell him. Still…it felt wrong to leave without saying goodbye…at least to Axel.

XIII

Axel stretched out his fingers. Finally, he was done with all of those reports. The hairs on the back of his neck stood as the darkness in the room condensed into a single point where it formed into the opening of a portal.

He turned to watch Roxas step through. The second his friend entered he could tell something was wrong. Axel frowned. "What's up?"

Roxas stared at the floor. "I'm leaving."

Axel blinked. "For your mission? Dude, you don't have to leave till tomorrow morning."

Roxas shook his head, reluctantly lifting his eyes to stare sadly at Axel. "I mean that I'm leaving…and…I'm not coming back."

Axel was silent for several minutes. Finally, "Why?"

Roxas took a deep breath. "I need to know what everyone's been keeping from me. If my other's still out there, then why am I still in the Organization? There's so much I need to know that no one here will tell me."

Axel didn't reply immediately. "You're the youngest member and the lowest ranked. Of course we aren't going to tell you everything."

Roxas's eyes narrowed. "There's more to it than that and you know it." Axel didn't reply. "Something's going on here, and I have a bad feeling it doesn't end too well for me."

Axel finally faced him. "So the higher-up's keep things from you. They keep things from all of us."

Roxas shook his head in frustration. "Oh really? Do they keep secrets from you about who you really are?" Roxas found himself glaring at Axel. It wasn't Axel's fault, but at the moment Roxas felt like blaming everything on his friend anyway.

Axel finally approached Roxas and put a hand on the young nobody's shoulder. Roxas quickly shrugged it off. Axel sighed. "Look…if I _could _tell you, I promise I _would_…and eventually, I promise I will." Axel groaned and scratched the back of his head. "How do I even _begin _to explain this one…" He sighed. "Look…eventually we'll be able to tell you everything. But for the time being it's the best thing for the Organization if-"

"Exactly!" Roxas shouted; Axel was taken aback by the sudden outburst. "I'm sick of the Organization! They don't care what happens to me as long as I'm fighting heartless for them!"

Axel glared. "You're sounding kind of selfish right now."

Roxas gawked. "Selfish?!" He gave a short, incredulous laugh. "This is ridiculous." He shook his head. "Look, the Organization wants hearts. That in itself really isn't that bad of a goal. But the extremes Xemnas will go to in order to get them…I don't want to be part of this anymore…Not like I ever fit in here anyway."

Axel grit his teeth. "Roxas," he took a deep breath, and then, more calmly, "Roxas, you _do _fit in here, and you _are _important to the Organization. Look, just, just stick around for a bit longer and things'll start to make sense."

Roxas sighed. "So, if I stay a little longer people will stop hiding things from me?"

Axel frowned. "Well, I think so…It's complicated."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "So there will still be secrets?"

"It's complicated."

"Of course," Roxas groaned. "I can't get a straight answer out of anybody." He shook his head. "Not even from my best friend." He sighed. "If I can't even trust you, then what's left for me here?" A portal of darkness began to swirl around Roxas, who refused to look at Axel.

Axel frowned sadly. "Just promise you'll reconsider?"

Roxas glanced up. "Whatever."

XIII

Roxas had no sooner materialized into his room when he slammed his fist against the wall. Just what he needed…one more reminder of how screwed up his life was. Axel was his best friend, and even he kept things from Roxas.

Roxas collapsed on his bed. Leave it to Axel to make him feel guilty about something this important. He knew leaving was not optional at this point-he couldn't tolerate staying here anymore; and now Axel had to go and make him feel like he'd made the wrong decision.

Roxas scratched the back of his neck. He paused, having discovered a piece of paper as the culprit behind the itch. He sat up, unfolding the note and glancing it over. The first thing he noticed was that the handwriting was almost his own. It was _not _his own, but looking at it Roxas was only able to tell because he knew he hadn't written it, and because there were a few miniscule differences.

The loops on his "y"s and "g"s were slightly more triangular than these, and the dots of the "i"s weren't quite careless enough. But for anyone other than himself, this would appear to be his handwriting. It didn't make sense-at least not until Roxas read what the note said.

"_Okay, so I know it's really stupid, but tell me what you think-and please don't tell anybody I write poetry. It's just a silly hobby._

_**The bride with no groom**_

_**Walks the dark aisle**_

_**And waits for the hour the clock doesn't chime**_

_**Until duty calls her away.**_

_Sucks, doesn't it? Anyway, I need this back by tomorrow. Thanks."_

Roxas couldn't help but grin. She was a genius. Anyone who found this note before he did would assume that Roxas wrote poetry that was so horrible that he didn't even deserve to be teased about it. No one would suspect that it was a riddle-understandable only to Roxas.

It would be wonderful to see Naminé again-that was what the note conveyed, after all. She was obviously the bride, and "the hour the clock doesn't chime" had been how he had signed the card he'd included with her dress when he'd given it to her. The dark aisle was a reference to the city outside the Castle That Never Was, and she seemed to indicate that she could meet him there tomorrow. Roxas suspected that she had a fixed window of opportunity, since the final line "Until duty calls her away" had been added.

Roxas couldn't wait. Naminé would be happy to know that he was leaving the Organization. Well, either happy or petrified.

Roxas knew it was not as simple as handing Xemnas a two-week notice and cordially parting ways. The Organization did not respond well to traitors. Not like it mattered.

Door Number One: Roxas would set out to find Sora, meet up with Naminé, free her from Diz, and then he and Naminé would rejoin Sora and Kairi, and live happily ever after. Insert sarcastic laughter at the over-optimism here.

Door Number Two: Also known as the doorway to reality. He'd set out to find Sora, make it five steps, and be annihilated by the Organization. It was also possible that Riku could kill him. That jerk certainly didn't seem to like Roxas. One way or another, he'd be gone. Naminé would finish with Sora, who would awake feeling happy and optimistic and ready to go find Kairi. Of course, being the charity nut that he was, Sora would play the good Samaritan and insist on helping Naminé. They'd find Kairi, Naminé would rejoin her, and she and Sora would live happily ever after while Roxas remained nothing but a name in the back of Kairi's head.

Door Number Three (for Roxas was certain there had to be one): He suspected it also contained, in some form, his untimely demise, and Sora, Kairi, and Naminé living happily ever after.

That was all that mattered, really. Roxas couldn't help but feel that he was doomed, the least he could do was save Naminé, Sora, and Kairi from a similar fate.

XIII

Naminé's fingers tapped impatiently against her sketchbook. She was too anxious to draw anything. The perpetually dying sunlight streamed through her curtains and highlighted the dark circles under Naminé's eyes. She'd finally gotten at least a little sleep last night, but overall she was running on pure adrenaline and caffeine.

She dragged up what little conserved energy she had to turn her head to watch Riku as he entered her room. She might have yelled if she'd had the energy, but she had to conserve all her strength for her rendez-vous later. Riku stood there awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Hi," Naminé replied, her voice barely a whisper.

Riku swallowed with difficulty. "I know you probably hate me right now."

Naminé didn't reply; not that Riku expected her to.

"I just-it'll help Sora." Riku explained simply. It sounded so childish and stupid when he said it aloud, but it was all he could think of to describe the situation.

"I understand," Naminé told him, honestly comprehending. "Not that I condone what you're doing, but I understand." She gave him a small smile.

"I can't save everybody, Naminé."

"I know. Your primary loyalty is to Sora."

Riku walked to her quickly, and collapsed on his knees in front of her. "Riku-" He shushed her, taking her hand and looking up at her through his blindfold.

"I'm sorry for the mess I'm making. I'm sorry for the trouble I'm causing for you and for Roxas." Naminé could glimpse the honesty and regret in Riku's eyes through his blindfold. She tried to give him a smile, but her lips wouldn't move. Riku took a deep breath and continued. "I'm afraid I'll have to be your enemy for just a little while longer. I promise, after Sora wakes up, I'll help you clean up this mess I've made."

Naminé felt the corners of her mouth tug up in a smile. "I don't hate you, you know." She whispered.

Riku smiled back. "Thank you." He slowly raised himself to his feet. "I have to go now." He said sadly. A portal appeared behind his back.

Naminé felt something lurch in the pit of her stomach. She had the most horrible feeling that this wouldn't end well for Roxas or Riku. Riku started to turn away, but Naminé leapt from her chair and flung her arms around Riku's torso. He was taken aback, but he hugged her back nonetheless. Naminé could feel the steady beat of Riku's heart as she buried her face against his chest. She was just glad to have her friend back, if only for the moment. She knew that for Riku, this felt like his only option. She couldn't blame him for that.

He released her and stepped back. "Don't hurt him," Naminé pleaded quietly, "For me."

Riku gave her a sad smile. "I'll try not to." He stepped backwards and was gone.

XIII

Roxas strode through the dark alleys of the city he had so long considered home. He turned a corner and something red caught his eye. He said nothing; he just kept walking. _Don't say anything. If you start talking to him, he'll find some way to talk you out of this. _

Roxas kept his vision trained ahead as he passed Axel, who was staring at his feet as he leaned against a building. "So your mind's made up, then?" Roxas couldn't help but pause.

"Why did the keyblade choose me? I have to know." He heard Axel move.

"You can't turn on the Organization!"

Roxas's eyes narrowed. "Watch me." He took a step, but paused as Axel called his name.

"Roxas!" Axel's shout held something like concern mixed with aggravation. "You get on their bad side and they'll destroy you!" Roxas immediately pictured Naminé in his mind's eye. He watched as her pale face faded into Kairi's. He didn't even look around as he answered.

"No one would miss me."

With that, he walked away, not even caring to listen to Axel's final words. "That's not true…I would."

Roxas was already out of earshot.

XIII

_Let's cast away these masks we wear_

_And these lies we live,_

_And come, let's be_

_the Beautiful Anomaly_

Naminé looked up as thunder echoed from the dark clouds gathered above the city. Even as she looked up, she saw a raindrop fall from the sky to splash against her cheek, soon followed by more. Within ten seconds it was pouring. Naminé shivered. She was already drenched. Her sopping hair clung to her face and her white dress was soaked through and sticking to her skin.

"…Naminé?" She turned and beheld Roxas standing at the end of the dark alley; his blonde hair soaked and his spikes flattened by the rain. So he had gotten her note.

Naminé rushed to him and threw her arms around him. He drew her close, shielding her from the wind and rain. Naminé broke down and started to sob into his black coat.

"Naminé?"

"Here this could be the last time I get to see you, and I'm a total mess…"

"No, no," Roxas pulled her closer. "And what do you mean this could be the last time you see me?"

Naminé looked up at him. "Riku's here."

"I know." Roxas's expression hardened. "Why?"

"For you. Diz has something horrible planned for you, and Riku will use any amount of force to bring you back."

Roxas took a step back, his keyblades appearing at his side. "I can take him. Once he's out of the way, I'll get you away from that Diz guy, and then you can finish Sora's memory in peace."

Naminé sadly shook her head. "I don't think it's going to be that easy. Riku's willing to go to any length to help Sora. If he thinks bringing you to Diz will help his friend, then he'll do anything."

Roxas frowned. "You think he can beat me, then?"

Naminé sighed. "I just don't think this is going to end well-for either of you."

Roxas cupped her cheek in his palm. Her sad blue eyes met his. "I can take whatever he's got to throw at me."

Naminé sighed again. "I was afraid you were going to say that." She reached into a pocket of her dress and pulled out a star-shaped charm. Her other hand pulled Roxas's hand up and she placed the charm into his palm.

Roxas examined it. "What is it?"

"It's a keychain," Naminé explained. "It's a replica of the one Kairi gave to Sora. I made it for you using Sora's memories as references."

Roxas smiled approvingly as he attached the charm to one of his keyblades. He grinned as his eyes swept over the keyblade's design. It complimented Oblivion quite well. "Thanks."

Naminé gave him a small smile. The rain had let up a little, but it was still a dismal downpour in which they were left to converse.

Roxas dismissed his weapons and sighed. "Naminé, I'm leaving the Organization. I'm going to fix everything. I'll get you away from Diz. This fight with Riku is where it all starts, I know it."

Naminé's smile faded. "Roxas-"

He put a finger against her lips. "Everything will be okay. Trust me." Roxas looked up at the hulking figure of Memory's Skyscraper, its neon glow blurred by the curtain of rain. "I have to go." He turned back to Naminé. She was shivering, and her eyes were filled with tears. He pulled her as close to him as he could, wanting to warm her. She was nowhere near properly dressed for the weather.

Naminé leaned her face so close to his that Roxas could see the individual raindrops suspended on her eyelashes. He smiled softly and closed what little distance divided their lips. Naminé's arms squeezed him even more tightly. She held him like it was the last time she'd ever touch him again; as far as she knew, it probably would be. She knew his mind was made up, and there would be no changing it.

-

_Diz tapped his computer screen. Sora's temperature and heart rate were skyrocketing for no apparent reason. The boy seemed to be fine though; perhaps it was just a technical problem. The knight was also smiling in his sleep._

_-_

"_Kairi?"_

"_Hm?" The redhead momentarily snapped from her daze; the teacher was waiting on her to finish her report. She tried, but for some strange reason her heart was pounding, her head was swimming, and she was feeling strangely happy for the first time in a year._

_-_

Finally, Naminé broke away and watched through teary eyes as Roxas stepped back and pulled his hood over his head. They faced each other silently for a few minutes, the rain ignored in light of their larger problems.

Roxas finally reached out and took Naminé's hand, squeezing it gently.

"I love you, Naminé."

"I know."

He gave her a small smile. "I'll come back for you, I promise."

Naminé couldn't help but doubt he'd be able to follow through with his promise, but she also knew that she needed to be strong for him. She gave him a smile as his hand slipped from hers.

"I know you will."

THE END

_and also the beginning_

AN: So, how was the final chapter? Was the ending up to snuff? I explained why Roxas has Oathkeeper, and delved deeper into that cutscence with Roxas and Axel. I hope the ending didn't seem anti-climactic. We all know what comes after this, after all. This is how I've planned to end it since the beginning. Once again, thank you to everyone. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can improve this final chapter, or any questions or anything, please drop a review and let me know. Thanks to everyone. Y'all have no idea how much it means to me that I've had so much support in this.

God bless. -Megs-


End file.
